Complications
by Philosophizes
Summary: We've got pages worth of stories about what happens to Brainy after he leaves the Legion; but how will the Legion survive without him? With an unwelcome new member,an inexperienced rival superhero team and some homicidal villains, no one knows the answer.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"**Workforce"**

* * *

"This is an outrage!" Chameleon Boy screamed at the computer screen.

Triplicate Girl took a careful look around before replying. "What, a worse outrage than having to take on a police watchdog?"

"That scumbag McCauley-"

Lightning Lad looked up from where he was sharing a quiet conversation with Saturn Girl. "What about McCauley?"

Cham screamed again and stalked out of the room. Saturn Girl got up and looked at what had gotten the Durlan so frustrated. She frowned at what she saw and spoke into her ring.

"Will everyone please report to the common room immediately?"

On second thought, she reflected, it would have been easier to use the meeting room. Blok and Colossal Boy took up most of the standing space and Dawnstar's wings just kept getting in the way of the people behind her. She made a mental note to herself about future gatherings of the team.

Imra began, figuring it was pointless to wait for Cham to stop muttering unflattering things under his breath.

"Chameleon Boy has brought some… awkward news to my attention."

A couple people turned to look at him. It seemed as if he didn't notice.

"Leland McCauley-" her pause was intentional. There was a universal dislike for RJ Brande's business and ideological rival; though no one felt it as strong as Cham. "has created a sort of alternate Legion."

"What, suddenly we aren't good enough for him?" Bouncing Boy asked.

"Nothing's good enough for McCauley." Phantom Girl retorted.

"I'm not sure he's allowed to do that." Karate Kid said.

"It doesn't matter if he's allowed to do it," Saturn Girl said. "The fact is he's done it. That alone wouldn't be enough to call this meeting, though. The United Planets has sanctioned the team. They have all the political and legal powers we do."

There were times it was very uncomfortable being the only telepath in the room. This was one of them. It didn't matter that most of it was in different languages. The feelings always crept through. She resolved to teach her teammates how to shield their emotions for the umpteenth time since founding the Legion.

Once again, it was Element Lad who asked the question that needed answering. "Has anyone told the Legionnaires out in the field about this?"

* * *

In a way, Cosmic Boy was glad that Saturn Girl was the new Legion Leader. He couldn't wake up and take on those duties each day knowing how he'd failed. He had been the leader during the crisis. As leader, he responsible for those under him. He was responsible for their safety and their health. He'd failed them. Some days it seemed all he did was fail those around him, ever since he failed his family so long ago on Braal. Somehow, none of them ever noticed. Brainiac 5 never noticed; only in his head could Cos admit to himself that he'd also failed the one he'd blamed for his problems.

Of course, the universe didn't care how he felt. Crime went on even during, he'd learned, the imminent end of the universe. That would be why he and a small team were out investigating Dream Girl's latest flash of prescience. She said that this warehouse district was going to be attacked. She said that it could very well be completely destroyed. So far, nothing had happened yet.

"You know why I hate stakeouts, Cos?" he heard over his ring.

"Get off the line, Garth."

"All that happens is that you sit there, getting all worked up, and then when you can actually _do_ something about it, half the time the bad guys get away."

"Well, if you paid attention instead of complaining to the mission leader, maybe you'd _catch_ the bad guys some of the time."

"Why are you in charge again?"

"Saturn Girl though it was a good idea."

"Makes her better than you, huh?"

Rokk just gritted his teeth. Ever since Imra had gotten elected leader, Garth hadn't laid off on him about what he thought was the reason the position changed hands. It didn't matter that Shrinking Violet couldn't stand Invisible Kid's attitude and Invisible Kid hated the way she insisted that physics was much more practical for the Legion's purposes than xenobiochemistry. They were the only people who could even come close to Brainiac 5's genius on the team.

"Cosmic Boy, suspicious persons coming up on your left."

At least something had gone surprisingly well since the Coluan had left. Chief of Science Police Lon Norg had either decided to let go of his hatred for the Legion, the organization that had "stolen" his son and his source of power; or he hadn't counted on his Liaison being somewhat sympathetic toward them. Shvaughn Erin was dedicated to her job, and quite serious about the protection of civilians; but best of all, she had never said anything derogatory about anyone on the team that any of them had been able to tell.

"Thank you, Shvaughn; I see them."

Scavengers. Typical.

"Lightning Lad, you circle around behind. Shvaughn, you go in on the left. Shrinking Violet, Invisible Kid," –if Cos had lost his job for teaming up those two, Imra deserved some of the blame for keeping them together-"come up front slightly from the right. I'm going in on top."

Before anyone could move, however, the ground in front of the Scavengers exploded.

The fragmented pieces of earth rose, turned on the tech-gangsters, and started chasing them around.

Invisible Kid could see the people causing the mayhem from his position. The explosion had come from a strangely armpit-less teenage boy with a red mohawk. There was a black-haired girl in a red and white outfit driving the giant clumps of dirt and rock around. The boy yelled something, and more young people suddenly appeared. A girl with light blue-purple hair picked up two Scavengers and knocked their heads together. It wasn't until one being, seemingly made of mud, blasted a trio of the gangsters with sludge that he realized who these people were.

"Hey Vi!" he called. "We've got amateur heroes here!"

Shrinking Violet was already halfway to the skirmish. The Legion had dealt with enough would-be heroes, mostly rejected applicants, trying to impress whatever team members happened to be nearby. Most times the worst that happened was the bad guys got away. Sometimes, however, catastrophe happened. To date, the Legion of Substitute Heroes were the only successful group to come out of such an experiment.

She knew she wasn't going to make it in time to prevent anything from going wrong. Yet more people were arriving. There was a girl in gold and black with giant dragonfly wings descending in a strange fog of some sort of gas, and she could see a blue-haired boy diving into the fray from the opposite direction.

None of them had noticed the position the Scavengers were maneuvering into. In a few moments, they would all be blown back into the surrounding buildings.

Invisible Kid caught up to her. "I'll go straight in!" he shouted over the din. "You go up and over; there's some more of them in the alley there!"

Salu nodded and jumped into the air. If she had aimed this right, she could get the bug-girl out of the way of the explosion.

Cosmic Boy grabbed the latest newcomer trying to gain entry into the fight. "What are you people, crazy?" he yelled at her. He was having trouble keeping her from escaping and jumping into the middle of the commotion. "Don't you know better than to run into a situation you know nothing about?"

That was when the backwash energies from the Scavenger's explosions hit them all. Cosmic Boy and the girl were closest to the epicenter. He was left holding a decapitated body.

Shrinking Violet had managed to pull the girl down out of the sky. She wouldn't listen to what Vi was trying to tell her though, and kept beating her wings so fast their hair whipped around their eyes. "Will you stop for a minute! We're all in danger here, can't you see th-"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the main Scavenger reach for the teleportation button. She also saw the blue-haired boy from before. Salu dove to the side, dragging the other girl and the boy down to the ground.

Invisible Kid was finding the sludge that the mud-thing had thrown around to be very, very sticky. Somehow he managed to wade through it and grab hold of the other person. The mud-thing turned its head and looked at him strangely. The teleportation energy went right through it.

Lightning Lad was furious. These wanna-bes were costing them a capture! He confronted the boy and the girl in the alley. "What do you think you're doing? Can't you see you're just getting in our way?"

The armpit-less boy snarled back at him. "Can't you see your getting _ours_?"

The girl looked dubious and slowly lowered her arms. Garth whipped his head around and saw that the dirtclods were now at about chest-height around the grouped Scavengers. The explosion was going to be worse than any of them had thought.

"No, bring those back up!" he turned on the girl. She flinched. "They're going to-"

His breath was knocked out of him by the rain of earth and the explosion at his back.

Shvaughn Erin had had enough riot training to know that you didn't want to dive right in. The tall, heavyset girl with the light blue-purple hair was closest to the edge of the group. She automatically switched into her cop mode.

"You are impeding an official operation! Stand down!"

The girl turned and she could see the giant blue blotch that covered one side of her face. Shvaughn spared a moment's thought to try and remember if she still wore her badge. The girl just looked confused by her presence. "But the Legion's here-"

Shvaughn hoped that the explosion would lose some of its power before it hit them.

* * *

"No, I don't believe anyone has told Rokk that there are some new people on the scene." Saturn Girl said. "Does anyone have any idea where McCauley's team is now? News releases, anybody?"

Star Boy spoke up. "Who are these people, anyway?"

"Does anyone know?" Saturn Girl asked. "Cham?"

Cham got up and pushed some buttons on the computer. "There're pictures around here somewhere…"

Posed pictures, obviously taken for the news, popped up. "That's them."

"They expect those people to replace _us_?" Nemesis Kid asked scornfully. "There's only thirteen of them! They could never cover the entire galaxy!"

"Dawny, move your wings…" Dream Girl struggled out from behind the mass of white feathers. Her eyes widened. "Hey! I know that guy!"

"Which one?" Saturn Girl asked urgently.

"That one! The guy with the red mohawk and no armpits!"

* * *

Invisible Kid wiped the muck out of his eyes and looked down in horror at the head that was slowly rolling to a stop at his feet. The rest of the Legionnaires were struggling to their feet, trying not to let go of their charges.

"Owww…" groaned Lightning Lad. "I feel like a wall fell on me."

"It did." Shrinking Violet said in disgust. She pulled on the formerly-floating dirtclod. It didn't move an inch. The girl in red and white looked sheepishly at her and raised her arms again. Salu jumped back as it rose high into the air. "Hey, why is all that gas still here? The explosion should have dispersed it."

"It would only do so if the backwash provided sufficient outward force to move the atoms of gas far enough apart that the unaided eye would be incapable of perceiving it." The boy with blue hair said. He coughed and started to brush himself off. "In this case, though, you are correct, there was enough force to have dispersed the gas."

"How could you tell?" she asked suspiciously.

"I observed the number of Scavengers and calculated the force it would take to move them, then-"

"-correlated the force with amount of backwash that particular transportation model makes when it's activated." Salu finished for him.

"Precisely." He said smugly.

"Hah!" she spun on Invisible Kid, who was still transfixed by the head. "See; Norg? Even they know physics- why is that cloud moving against the breeze?"

Cosmic Boy had managed to completely miss the entire exchange. A body. He was holding a headless body. He couldn't protect his own team, now he couldn't even protect some amateurs who didn't know when they needed to stop and think. He just kept getting worse and worse…

The body jerked. The other arm came around and pushed his hand off its shoulder. The legs moved and the body staggered around, its hands held out far to the sides. It tripped and fell over some debris, making a loud crash. Everyone turned to look at it.

Invisible Kid heard a faint muttering from somewhere nearby. He looked around the rubble that covered the area, searching to see if someone had gotten trapped under one of the collapsed buildings. "Shvaughn…?" he called doubtfully.

"What?" she called from over to his left.

He heard it again.

"Will you … pick me… up?"

Lyle stared at the head at his feet. He coughed suddenly. The gas cloud had floated down and surrounded him.

The gas by the head thickened and formed an arm. A discorpreal hand grabbed the head by its muck-caked hair. Slowly, a petite, brown-haired girl in a short red kimono materialized. She seemed to float in the air a moment, then touched down to earth.

"Finally!" the head groaned, spitting out some of the mud. "Thanks, Gas Girl."

"Hey, Konk," Gas Girl shouted to the failing body. "I've got your head!"

* * *

"Wait a minute," said Bouncing Boy. "You _know_ these people?"

"Not _all _of them," Dream Girl retorted. "Just that guy."

"Mind enlightening the rest of us?"

"That's Marak Russen. He was always trying to get me to go out with him when I was operating as Madame Mysterio." She pulled a face. "I have never met a more prideful, obnoxious, _incompetent _small-time 'hero' than him."

"So these guys are a bunch of local heroes?" Phantom Girl hazarded.

"I think so," Star Boy said. "That one," he pointed at the girl with the dragonfly wings. "I think she became a hero on Xanthu after I left. Her name was… Wonda? Londa? Lonna? Something like that."

"Well, _she_ was never a hero." Matter-Eater Lad gestured to the picture of the girl with the blue-blotched face. "Taryn went to my school before I left to study law."

"Wonderful." Saturn Girl groaned. "McCauley managed to find people we _knew_."

* * *

Konk settled her head back onto her neck. "Remind me to spend my next paycheck on a neck guard, okay Tal?" she said to Gas Girl.

"Who _are_ you people?" Lightning Lad finally managed to bluster.

The mud-thing opened its mouth to speak, but the blue-haired boy beat it. "We are the Workforce. We were assembled to defend the United Planets from harm that regular people-," he shot a superior glance at Shvaughn, who glowered at him. "-are incapable of dealing with. We exist to keep the galaxy from plummeting into utter ruin and prevent any crises from obliterating it."

"That's _our_ job." Cosmic Boy reminded him.

"And we never sound so pompous when we explain it, either." Lightning Lad said.

"I am Duplicate Boy, of Lallor," the blue-haired boy proclaimed. "This," he gestured to the girl with the insect wings. "-is Insect Queen from Xanthu. Behind me is Atmos, also of Xanthu."

The boy with the mohawk scowled. Duplicate Boy continued. "Gas Girl is from Lallor, Konk from Xanthu, Life Lass-" the girl in the red and white outfit looked uncomfortable at being singled out. "-is from Lallor. Sludge is from Antares."

"My dad's the Senator there!" the mud-thing piped up. "He's really proud of me!"

"Calorie Queen is from Bismoll."

"Lovely place," she told Shvaughn, who was still standing next to her. "You should visit."

"Look, I admire your… enthusiasm," Cosmic Boy said. "But you should really leave this sort of thing to us. We know how to handle it."

"_Sure_ you do," Atmos sneered. Cosmic Boy glared at him and Duplicate Boy just smiled indulgently.

"We do know how to handle 'this sort of thing'," he said. "If we didn't, the United Planets wouldn't have endorsed us, would they?"

"They did _what_?" Lightning Lad asked incredulously.

"The United Planets backed Leland McCauley's decision to establish us as a team."

"_McCauley did what!_"

"Are you _deaf_?" Duplicate Boy asked him pointedly. "The United Planets has decided that there needs to be a new order."

"We've been doing fine!" Shrinking Violet protested angrily.

"If you were doing 'fine', then why did the galaxy have to be reconstituted and why are you missing a member; who, I might add, is now a _former_ member who left the team in disgrace?"

Cosmic Boy stuck out a hand to keep Violet back. "We were never notified of this."

"Who needed a notification?" the other teen asked him. "You've got that SciPol dog tagging along on almost every mission. No one trusts you anymore."

He turned to the rest of his team. "Let's go."

* * *

Saturn Girl turned as the Lightning Lad entered the room, covered in dust and dirt. "What happen-"

She stopped as Invisible Kid walked in, dripping a thick, sticky-looking muck.

"I thought you were fighting Scavengers!" Imra continued.

"We were," Garth protested. "And they wouldn't've gotten away if it wasn't for some wanna-be douchebag heroes messed up the mission!"

"Who?" Saturn Girl had a sinking feeling that she already knew.

"I dunno, a bunch of random losers from Xanthu and Lallor-"

"Hey!" Shrinking Violet exclaimed, seeing the pictures. "That's them!"

Imra sighed as she turned to Cosmic Boy. "Would you mind telling us more about them? We couldn't figure out too much."

He just stood there and gave her a look.

"We were just about to call you," she told him.

* * *

Star Boy said goodnight to Dream Girl as he went into his rooms.

She headed toward her door, ready to go to bed after the harrowing day. It looked as if the Legion wasn't going to be able to get rid of this Workforce. They couldn't even identify all of the pictures. There were too many unknowns for her taste.

Hopefully her dreams would carry some answers.

* * *

Princess Projectora was first on the scene, Saturn Girl right at her heels, when Nura woke up screaming.

"Nura, Nura!" the princess said urgently. "What did you see?"

"Orando…" she turned to look at the other girl. "Jeckie! You have to get to Orando, quickly! Your people are in danger!"

"From what? From who?"

"The planet…" Nura said vaguely. Imra was already half out the door and signaling for the rest of the Legion to get down to the ship.

"What about my planet, Dream Girl!"

She looked at Jeckie with wide, unfocused eyes. "It's being destroyed."

Princess Projectora dragged her friend out the door with her, running for the landing bay and the ship.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"**Terror Firma"**

* * *

_The gates went down first. Ten feet thick, made of solid wood, they had stood for a millennium. Panicked people ran before the destruction, many trapped into their falling homes. Others were swept up in the high winds that blew out of nowhere or by the water from the burst sewers. Eventually the in-town mansions of rich and powerful shuddered on their foundations and fell apart. The rubble spread outward, shooting toward those trying to escape. The kitchens would go up in giant gouts of flames, embers carried onto the roofs of the unscathed houses. One was carried over the Palace walls, dancing through the air. It flickered slightly, and alighted softly onto a curtain blowing through an open window. The whole room was quickly up in flames. Ancient timbers groaned, then snapped under the increased load of collapsed ceilings and walls. It didn't take long before a chain reaction took down a whole floor of rooms; forcing a fireball out the main door into the courtyard._

It looked even worse from the air than she had seen in her dream. The area around Orando's capital was destroyed; the actual city was only slightly better off. Only the Royal Palace was still standing; but even that was missing a wing.

"I _demand_ that we go down there now." Princess Projectora was breaking from her ongoing argument with Saturn Girl.

"We will go down there, Jeckie," she tried to keep her voice calm and soothing. "I know you're worried about your planet; but first we have to try and figure out who did this. We can't just go down there with no plan."

"_My people_ are down there, Imra!" she screamed at the team leader. "I have a duty to them as the heir to the throne of Orando; and moreover, my _family_ is still in the palace! The wing that collapsed was the residential wing!"

Saturn Girl put up her hands. "Alright, Jeckie. You can go planetside, but you _will_ take a team and you _will_ maintain contact. I don't want anyone to get into a situation you can't get out of."

* * *

Princess Projectora touched down just outside the ruins of the residential wing and ran into the rubble. Cosmic Boy and Cham weren't far behind her.

"Wilhelm! Wilhelm!" she called desperately, running from pile to pile. "Little Brother! Mother, Father!"

There was a slight cough off on her left. Jeckie pulled loose debris off a man lying half out of the rubble.

"Seneschal!"

"Princess…" he coughed. "Where is the King?"

"I don't know! We just got here!" She pulled him up, and had to catch him when his leg collapsed under him. "Where did you see my family last?"

"The King was holding Full Court, all the Heads of the Houses were there…"

Jeckie passed the man over to Cham. "Make sure he gets to Triplicate Girl; I don't want him to lose that leg."

Cham nodded and ducked under the man's arm. "I'm going to fly you up, okay?" he told him.

"This way," she ordered Cos. "If all the Heads were, there, my mother and brother would be there to."

* * *

Karate Kid spun around as Chameleon Boy touched down into the beginnings of an emergency treatment area. "I've got a wounded here!" he called. Triplicate Girl came running over. Years of patching up her friends and teammates served her well now that she was the only trained medic on the team.

"Cham!" Saturn Girl called from where she was supervising the movement of equipment out from the ship. "I need you to be on a search team!"

"Jeckie's expecting me back!"

"I'll go," Karate Kid told him. "Don't worry about her."

"Yeah, you're doing it."

* * *

Dawnstar stirred up a small patch of pebbles thoughtfully. "The people who did this were here recently, I know that. Somehow, though, the trail is already almost cold."

Ultra Boy cracked his knuckles. "Well, where'd they go?"

Timber Wolf was sniffing around a few feet away. "That way. This scent… it's odd. It feels like the scent doesn't want me to find it."

"Get your head checked, puppy. Let's go smash the guys who did this."

* * *

Star Boy made more rubble float up off the trapped civilians. Phantom Girl was phasing through the larger piles, pulling people out of places where the ruins were unstable. Element Lad was leaving clouds of oxygen behind him as collapsed buildings vaporized when he touched them. Colossal Boy piled everything that was left once the people were evacuated off to the side.

Triplicate Girl had set up a treatment area nearby in a mostly-clear city square. She had roped Invisible Kid, Bouncing Boy, and Nemesis Kid into helping her bind up the less serious wounds.

Saturn Girl turned toward the remaining assembled Legionnaires, satisfied that everything was going reasonably well.

"So, what are _we_ going to do?" Tyroc asked.

"I need you to spread out and see if the people who attacked the cities left behind any clues. Dawnstar and Timber Wolf already tracking them, and they should be fine with Ultra Boy to watch their backs. This level of destruction couldn't have been done by one person-"

"Yeah. You lose whole systems when that happens." Sun Boy muttered under his breath.

Shadow Lass slapped his arm. "Shut up."

Blok looked over at Dream Girl. She was still shaken up by her dream. He saw her vacant expression and tried to get Saturn Girl's attention.

"Saturn Girl…"

"Wildfire, I want you to go with Shrinking Violet." She hadn't heard him. "Cham will go with Shadow Lass, Sun Boy will go with Dream Girl, and I'll go with- Blok? Blok?"

She looked around in confusion. "Where did he go?"

* * *

Dream Girl ran ahead of Blok, yelling to him. "We need to get to Jeckie and Dawnstar!"

"Dream Girl, they are not even with the same team-"

"The people who did this, they're still around!"

* * *

Karate Kid was flying low over the ruins of the palace, hunting for the Princess. He spotted a figure stumbling through the rubble and touched down.

"Jeckie?"

The figure coughed and came into clear view. A young man, taller than him, blinked his eyes clear of the dust he had stirred up.

"Who…?"

"I am Karate Kid, of the Legion of Superheroes. We are here to help-"

"My sister! Do you know my sister?"

Karate Kid looked at his clothes. Through the dust, those would be of fine cloth. "Projectora?"

"Yes! Is she here?"

"I'm still looking for her-"

"You have to hurry!" the Prince's eyes were wide. "Those monsters are still here!"

* * *

"Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me!" Lightning Lad yelled into the empty city.

The Workforce stood before him.

"Hey again!" Gas Girl greeted him.

"Saturn Girl!" Garth called.

"She's not here anymore." Phantom Girl phased through the closest wall. "Everyone who's not getting people out of the ruins or fixing them up is hunting Dream Girl. She's disappeared."

"Of all the times- just watch these guys, okay?" He ran off.

Tinya looked doubtfully at the small group before her. "So, you guys are-?"

"I'm Gas Girl! Duplicate Boy put me in charge this time! This is Kid Quake," she swung her arm around the boy next to her. "That's Sludge, and Atmos, and Inferno's over there." She pointed at a tall, lanky blonde girl staring hard at a pile of broken masonry.

The Legionnaire thought for a moment. "Did you bring anyone who isn't good at destroying stuff?"

"I don't destroy stuff, I dissipate-"

"You should have brought those other guys, the ones at the warehouse. Uh… Calorie Queen and Life Lass. They could help pull people out. We've got enough destruction here already."

Gas Girl's face fell. "Are you sure the people I brought-"

"Only if you wanted to tear down the rest of the planet."

* * *

Cosmic Boy joined Projectora in digging through the fallen pieces of roof in what had been the Throne Room. Every so often, they'd find a piece of sleeve or skirt and uncover a person. Most of the people were still alive, but badly hurt.

"We should take these people back to Trips!" Cos insisted again. "If we just leave them here they could die!"

"We don't have time, Cosmic Boy! There are too many people here that need our help."

"Jeckie, what good is saving people if we just let them bleed out behind us?" he shouted.

"Fine, you take them back!" Her wide, round red eyes flashed at him. "I am going to find my parents!"

Cosmic Boy looked at her in disgust and picked up one young girl, flying off.

Bits of gravel clattered behind them. They both turned as Karate Kid and the prince came running up.

"Wilhelm!" she exclaimed, jumping up to embrace him tightly.

"Jeckie!" he pushed her away and grabbed her shoulders. "You have to leave!"

"Wil, I can't-"

"They're going to come back! There's one who-"

The half-fallen wall behind them shuddered and started to crumble.

* * *

Colossal Boy reeled back and nearly dropped his handfuls of rocks and wood. "Hey! I almost _stepped_ on you; idiot! Watch where you're go-" he peered down. "You're not a Legionnaire…"

Triplicate Girl heard the rumble before the shadow fell across the sectioned off treatment area. She spun around just in time to see the pile of debris that Colossal Boy had been making tumble toward her; the giant trying desperately to stop it all from crushing all of them.

"Just through here!" Dawnstar called. "I don't think we're far behind now!"

She shot through the still-standing frame of the city gates and pulled up in confusion. The clear, flat space that surrounded the city was free of any obstacles to her line of sight was empty. Ultra Boy and Timber Wolf shot past her.

"Dawny, you said we weren't far behind!"

"We shouldn't be!" she exclaimed, frustrated. "The trail end he-"

Something hit her back and she fell to the ground, pinned. The boys stared over her, seeing even more people coming.

The strangers rushed toward them and the boys ran toward them. They engaged in a roar.

On the ground, Dawnstar spotted two figures disappear in a flash of light.

* * *

Dream Girl stopped running, gasping for breath. Blok paused next to her.

"Dream Girl?"

"Too late…"

"Dream Girl?"

"Why am I always too _late _when it really matters?" she wailed.

* * *

"I hear destruction!" Atmos bellowed. "Lead me to it!"

"You aren't supposed to be going anywhere!" Tinya exclaimed as he pushed past her. She turned and yelled at his receding back. "Hey!"

She turned just to see the rest of the Workforce dashing off in all directions.

* * *

Star Boy flew up under the falling pile of debris and spread his arms wide. The various wood and stone fragments wobbled in the air and slowly began rising.

Bouncing Boy turned on the man responsible for the near-catastrophe. "Just what do you think you're doing? We all could have been killed!"

The man's eyes were cold as he replied. "That was the idea."

A giant fist of rock blasted up from the ground and sent Bouncy flying.

The man kneeled with his hands flat on the ground. The whole city trembled and what little of the buildings remained started to fall apart. A girl appeared behind him, her arms raised high above her head. The air around her started to swirl, and soon she was standing in the middle of a miniature cyclone.

Invisible Kid looked around desperately. It was only him, Trips, Bouncy, and Nemesis Kid.

Nemesis Kid.

"Hart!" he yelled over the roaring of the winds, waving his arms. The other boy looked over and struggled toward him, barely avoiding a giant crack that came snaking through the street.

"We need to get over there, Lyle."

"I know! I know!" he said, grabbing Hart's arm. They both experienced a moment of disorientation as the light bent around them. Lyle started running as soon as the world looked straight again. Nemesis Kid stumbled a bit, then managed to keep up with him. They reached the pair just as the girl released her cyclone.

* * *

A massive male alien in protective padding burst through the wall. Karate Kid pushed Jeckie and Wilhelm out of the way and used the alien's momentum to send him tumbling to the ground. Fire spewed from the space where the wall used to be.

Princess Projectora pushed past her brother and confronted the alien before he could get up. "Stay down," she snarled at him. "Stay down and surrender, or I shall be the one to make you submit."

He started to his feet and she held out a hand. He screamed and covered his eyes. "You witch! What did you do? Where did you get this light?"

"Gron?" a voice called. A blonde girl in fire colors clambered over some debris. "What's going on?" She spied Projectora and Karate Kid could see the anger rising in her eyes. He landed a flying kick on her back and she fell forward.

"Thanks Val." Jeckie said calmly.

The other girl scrambled to her feet and directed a gout of fire in his direction. He rolled out of the way and had to dive to the side when a burst of flame hit the ground next to his head.

* * *

Saturn Girl was still searching the ruins when she felt a tentative telepathetic probe. She reached out and grabbed it with her mind. Someone let out a strangled sound nearby. Wildfire landed on top of a large pile of shattered roofing and looked down at the two people there. One of them looked up. "Phren…" he tugged on the other's sleeve.

Phren looked up. "What are just sitting there for? Move!"

He got up with more speed than Wildfire would have credited him for. The impact of his body sent them both flying to the ground.

"Drake!" Sun Boy yelled.

They struggled with each other for a moment; then the strange young man got a hand under Wildfire's helmet, sticking it straight into the anti-matter energy that made up the Legionnaire's body.

"What are you-"

His opponent dissolved into water and flowed into his containment suit. Drake could feel himself cooling down at an alarming rate.

"Get out of my body!" he roared, and slapped his hands onto the front of the suit, turning his energy back on himself.

Somehow, everyone managed to duck behind some sort of barrier before Wildfire's containment suit exploded, completely releasing his form.

* * *

Karate Kid had his hands full trying to keep the fire girl from incinerating him or anyone else. All the ducking, tumbling, and general avoiding only tired him out enough that his reflexes were starting to slow down. His last tumble had left his hair singed.

Val reached out a hand behind him and it hit a wall. There was a wall on his other side too. The fire girl had maneuvered him into a corner. She raised her hands again. A giant fireball roared toward him.

Another gush of flame deflected the first one. A different blonde girl in fire-colors now stood on the remains of the wall that had pulverized. Jeckie was distracted for a moment by the newcomer and Gron surged up out of her hold, punching her in the gut.

"Jeckie!" Val yelled.

The new girl directed her stream of fire closer to the first pyrotechnic. Gron shook his head, dispelling the last of the illusion.

"Uhgh… Kynda!"

Princess Projectora threw another conjuration into his face, this one of a giant cobra. It struck at Gron and he swung wildly at it.

The fire was just creeping closer and closer to her.

* * *

Even though Timber Wolf had knocked her attacker off, Dawnstar still couldn't move. The girl had projected some sort of statis field around her. The edge of it had clipped Ultra Boy and he was moving slower than usual. He couldn't switch out of his invulnerability mode for fear of getting seriously injured. Brin had his hands full just keeping the group off her.

Gradually, Dawnstar realized she was able to move her fingers. She strained to move her wings and broke out of the statis field all at once. She surged up off the ground and hurled herself into the air, ignoring Jo's angry shouting after her. No one could catch her. She could fly faster than any Kryptonian ever could.

And that would mean victory for her.

Dawnstar circled around in a wide arc, observing.

She sped down, searching for the trail she knew would lead into the ruined city; and knowing she would find Tyroc nearby.

He was crouched behind a giant broken rock, shielding himself from Drake's energies.

"Troy!" she hissed in his ear.

"Dawny, what-?"

"Listen to me! I have a plan."

* * *

Nemesis Kid managed to get the man tearing the ground apart into a headlock. Lyle tackled the lady making the cyclone. She struggled with him, and Lyle fought to hold on inside the new winds she had conjured up.

The man was having a much harder time of it.

"Who are you?" Hart demanded. "What do you want?"

"I am… Elysion." The man managed to say. "We are Terror Firma, and we want one thing-"

The lady broke out of Lyle's hold and blew him down the street.

Elysion struggled out of the headlock and managed to get the Legionnaire's arm twisted around behind him.

"-Revenge."

He leaned down on Hart's arm and there was a snap. Nemesis Kid screamed in pain.

* * *

_:I'll take Tyroc and go back to the gates. He can vibrate the molecules around there enough that we won't ever have to worry about these people again.:_

Phren thought the mind-voice sounded like a high mountain wind swooping down into a pine forest.

_:Good idea, Dawnstar.:_

He knew that voice. That was the Legionnaire who had captured his mind probe.

_:I'm tired of dealing with these people. I want them gone and I want them gone for good.:_

The accompanying images he saw with his mind made Phren absolutely certain as to the degree of permanency 'good' was.

There was a giant whoosh as Dawnstar took off, dragging Tyroc behind her.

Phren grabbed his partner's arm. "We have to get out of here, now! The gate patrol is in trouble!"

* * *

_:Thank you for helping, Saturn Girl.: _Dawnstar called with her mind. _:Now get to Princess Projectora!:_

* * *

Blok had one large, stone hand on Dream Girl's back. She had her head in her hands. She cleared her throat and he thought that she was about to talk about 'being too late' again. Instead she lifted her head and sniffed a few times.

"Blok…" she said wonderingly. "There's time again."

She grabbed his hand and they ran off into the ruins once more.

* * *

Ultra Boy had managed to get the statis field full in his face this time. Timber Wolf was jumping all around him, trying to fend off the crowd.

There was a blinding flash, and he staggered back into Jo; covering his eyes with his arms. Someone called to the attackers.

"Get through here, quickly! One of -" The rest of his words were drowned out by a sonic boom. Dawnstar and Tyroc descended from the sky.

"Too late!" he screamed again. "Go now!"

Tyroc swooped down and took a deep breath.

Dawnstar managed to call out to Jo and Brin about where to go next before Tyroc let out with an ear-splitting wail. The air vibrated at a high frequency, and little flashes of heat lightning crept closer and closer to the escaping enemies scrambling for the small portal Phren had put up.

Just as the last one fell through and the portal's light started to fade, Dawnstar grabbed Tyroc again and they followed the boys' trail to the treatment area.

* * *

Elysion looked up from where Nemesis Kid had collapsed by his feet. Phren was waving his arms wildly from across the square.

"Elysion! Zelpha! Some of the Legio-" he spotted Ultra Boy and Timber Wolf flying in over a ruined boardinghouse.

"They're here, they're here!"

Elysion turned and saw the tiny sonic boom outside the city. He ran at a mad dash toward the portal, Zelpha not far behind.

Dawnstar landed in the square to see Trips helping Hart to his feet and the rest of the Legionnaires on clean-up duty talking urgently with Brin and Jo. She called to them.

"You all need to get to Princess Projectora, now! The teleporter is taking everyone there!"

She took off again before Triplicate Girl could protest that she had patients to see too.

* * *

Jo managed to catch up to her.

"What are you trying to do, run us into the ground?"

"I'm trying to round up these terrorists!" she told him. "Terrorists are all the same; confront them head-on, with more power, and they run. I managed to get them scared of Tyroc, and now they're all converging on Princess Projectora. If the Legion can get to her, we'll be able to overpower them."

* * *

The two fire-wielders were now directing their flames straight at one another. The heat was getting unbearable, penetrating even the flight ring's environmental shielding. Jeckie was losing her concentration. She stepped to the side.

Karate Kid had pulled himself out of the corner and watched as Jeckie's foot caught a protruding piece of rubble and fell backwards. The giant snake that had been coiling itself around Gron disappeared. He started toward the Princess.

Val wasn't going to be able to get to her before the alien reached her.

Suddenly, Gron drove his hand into the fallen debris of the palace roof and pulled out a man.

"Father!" Jeckie yelled.

A smile spread across the enemy's face as he realized who he held.

* * *

Blok cannoned into the alien who held the King. Dream Girl ducked under the flying fists and caught him as he fell. Projectora ran over to her, sweeping the King up in an enthusiastic hug.

"Father, Father are you all right?"

Nura saw his small smile even through his dirty, matted short beard.

"I thought you weren't going to come home until you finished learning about the rest of the galaxy," he told his daughter fondly.

Jeckie pulled back and smiled widely at him. "This was a special occasion."

Nura could see the rest of the Legion beginning to climb over the piles scattered around the area. Dawnstar and Jo pulled up overhead and started to land.

Element Lad saw the two fire-girls still fighting and reached out a hand. The flames sputtered and died, failing to burn in carbon dioxide.

A small point of light appeared off to the side.

* * *

Terror Firma faced the assembled Legion.

Neither side moved.

"Elysion," Kynda hissed from her position. "What do we do? The Legion-"

"-has backup!" trumpeted Gas Girl, scrambling over the rubble. "Great job, Inferno! You found them." The second fire girl just looked at her. The Workforce appeared behind her.

"Oh no." Lightning Lad and Dream Girl whispered simultaneously.

All of them but Inferno ran straight toward Terror Firma. A full half the Legion turned to try and stop them.

"Those idiots are going to get themselves killed!" Cosmic Boy yelled.

* * *

Elysion saw his chance. While the Legion was distracted, he dashed forward. He ducked Ultra Boy's swing and Star Boy's attempt making him three times his weight. Blok loomed in front of him. This was something he could work with.

* * *

Blok could feel his body twisting and contorting out of all recognition. His own stone-like nature usually resisted physical change, weathering, fracturing, chipping. This was different. His body _wanted_ to change under Elysion's influence.

Wildfire's disembodied energies managed to descend on the two of them. Elysion screamed and the weirdly protruding parts on Blok started to dissolve.

"Retreat, retreat!" he yelled. Terror Firma slowly disengaged from the Legion. Phren set up a hurried gate, and the destroyers of Orando's capital left for places unknown.

The Workforce was nowhere to be seen.

"Figures. The wanna-bes leave just when the going gets tough." Nemesis Kid had managed to get to the fight despite a dislocated shoulder. "I said they couldn't handle the job."

* * *

Saturn Girl counted the downed Legionnaires once they got everyone moved to the medical bay on the ship. There were too many. Entirely too many.

Thus ended the relief mission-turned-terse confrontation-turned-rout.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"**Perception"**

* * *

"Why wasn't I notified of this mission?" Shvaughn Erin asked irately, glaring down at Lightning Lad from the communications screen. "I was assigned to this team to be the Science Police Liaison, and I cannot perform my duty if you leave me at Headquarters when you go out on a mission!"

"We forgot." Garth told her innocently, smiling widely. "Hold on a minute, we've got another transmission."

He switched her conversation off and turned on the other line. Chemical King's face popped up.

"Ah, Condo," he groaned. "Did we forget you back at HQ with that SciPol watchdog?"

"Am I really that forgettable?" he asked forlornly, staring over Garth's head to look at Invisible Kid.

"Not to me you aren't." Lyle told him, walking over. "You know, sometimes I think that power of your makes us forget about you."

"You really think so?" Condo asked worriedly.

"I'm joking, Condo." Lyle smiled softly. "I promise I'll make this up to you when we get back, okay?"

The other boy smiled and ended the transmission.

Lyle turned to Garth, obviously distressed. "How could I forget my own boyfriend?"

Garth just shrugged helplessly.

"Do you think he's mad at me?" Invisible Kid asked.

Lightning Lad put his hand on Lyle's shoulder, looking sage-like. "Lyle, Condo is the most apologetic person I have ever met. He probably thinks it's his fault."

Now Lyle just looked stricken. "But that's _worse_!"

* * *

Princess Projectra sighed and looked around the tiny Records Room. Miraculously, it had managed to escape most of the damage. The ceiling was cracked, and everything was coated with plaster dust, but everything had survived.

All the Heads of the Noble Houses that could walk were crammed into the small space, along with the Seneschal and the Chronicler. The King and Queen had taken the two chairs at the end of the table farthest from the door. The Seneschal, always concerned with decorum, had managed to scrounge up two stools for Wilhelm and Jeckie.

"So," she said. "Are we all sure we can't think of any reasons why Terror Firma would want to attack Orando?"

"Perhaps they wanted our money," said one Duke.

"The Royal Treasury was destroyed," she pointed out. "If they wanted our money, they could have stolen the artifacts kept there."

"A ransom for the King?" asked a Countess.

"Terror Firma collapsed the Throne Room, with my Mother and Father and Brother inside. You can't get a ransom for dead people."

The Seneschal winced. "Quite right, Princess."

"Perhaps they wanted to ransom you!" a Lord exclaimed.

"Pardon?"

"These terrorist could have tried to draw out the Legion, Princess; to capture _you_."

* * *

"We're ba-ack!" Gas Girl chortled into the empty main room at Workforce headquarters.

"Oh, give it a rest, Tal." Atmos growled, and collapsed onto a couch. "I've got a headache from listening to you."

Inferno sat down silently on the other couch and stared intently at the floor. Gas Girl looked as if Atmos's comment had taken all the air out of her. She walked dejectedly to the table and flopped into a chair. Kid Quake placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Sludge looked around and started toward Inferno. She stuck a fist out and shot some flames at him, never looking up from the floor.

"I'll tell my dad on you." he muttered, shuffling sideways.

Duplicate Boy stormed into the room.

"How could you all be so stupid!" he screamed at them. "Gas Girl!"

She jumped and turned in her seat.

"Duplicate Boy-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses!" Duplicate Boy snarled, jabbing a finger at her. "You ran into a mission with no plan and no idea what you were facing."

"But the Legion was there-"

"We're supposed to _replace_ the Legion, you idiot! You can't rely on them to get you out of trouble!"

"How were we supposed to know what was going on?"

"We got the report! Did you even _look_ at it?"

She shook her head timidly.

"See, Gas Girl?" Duplicate Boy kept ranting. "This is why you're such a failure! You can't even be bothered to _try_!"

She cringed.

"You asked me when we got back from the warehouse," his pitched his voice high and sneered at Gas Girl. "Oh, _Duplicate Boy_, can I _please_ have the next mission? I want to be a _leader_! I want to _help _people!"

The petite girl looked like she was about to cry.

A blast of heat hit Duplicate Boy.

"Stop picking on her." Inferno said sullenly.

* * *

"That whole mission was a disaster!"

Invisible Kid and Lightning Lad had walked in on a very forceful discussion.

The Legion had sprawled around the main bridge, some none too comfortably. Injuries didn't lend themselves to much more than bedrest.

"I can't believe we ended up looking like such _fools_!" Chameleon Boy continued, still pacing angrily. Saturn Girl was sitting in the pilot's chair, watching him.

He stopped suddenly and looked at her. "What went wrong, anyway?"

"We didn't have a plan." Cosmic Boy said disgustedly. "We acted just like the Workforce did, we were just more organized about it."

"So, who's our planner?" Cham asked angrily. "Why aren't they doing their job?"

Everyone looked at Saturn Girl. She looked at the main console that lined the giant front window pointedly. Shrinking Violet was sitting in the coordinator's chair.

"Brainy always did our plans." Violet pointed out quietly, staring at the console.

"Well, you and Lyle were supposed to replace him weren't you?" Colossal Boy asked, annoyed.

She whipped around in the chair and glared at him. "We _can't_ replace him. _No one_ can replace him."

Gim winced. He heard the double meaning in that.

"How do you propose to have us learn everything he knows barely a month after he's left? There's still parts of the computer we can't get into! No one knows exactly how the flight rings or HQ or the outpost or a thousand other things work but him! We can't-"

"He just left without telling you the passcodes for the computer?" Bouncy interrupted. "That's not like him."

"Of _course_ it's not like him," Shadow Lass said. "Didn't you listen to _anything_ Saturn Girl's been saying since he left? His mind was going in a million different directions trying to figure itself out."

"No, no, I've been listening," he assured her hastily. "I just thought he'd remember to do that."

"It's been a day for forgetting." Lightning Lad said theatrically. The Legion turned to look at him.

"Shvaughn found out we _forgot_ her."

"And we forgot Condo there too." Lyle groaned.

"How about we keep remembering to forget the watchdog?" Ultra Boy suggested. "I like it better without her."

"So says the gangster." Trips rolled her eyes as she walked into the room. "The UP's Relief Corps are here, so we can clear out at any time."

Nemesis Kid flipped his ring on. "Let's not forget anyone else, shall we?"

"Let's get back to the topic at hand!" Cosmic Boy demanded. "Shrinking Violet, no one is expecting you to know everything right away. But you and Lyle should have come up with a plan. We're all just lucky that Dawnstar managed to do some quick thinking and pull something together right on time."

"How was I supposed to come up with a plan if I didn't know what I was supposed to be planning _for_?" Violet asked.

"You could have been watching-"

"I was down in the field!"

"So?" Sun Boy said. "Your precious Brainy planned on the fly in emergencies!"

"I am sick and tired of you, Dirk!" she yelled at him. "All you've done since he left is antagonize me and anyone else who bothers to stand up to your bigotry!"

He looked at her coolly. "Only people who I _respect_ get to call me by my name."

The Founders watched helplessly as yet another fight broke out.

* * *

"That is not it." Projectra said firmly. "One of Terror Firma tried to kill me."

"They did? Princess, are you sure-"

"I'm _fine_, thank you."

Her ring buzzed.

"Excuse me." She got up and left the room. Leaning against the wall, she turned on her ring's visual. Nemesis Kid's head appeared.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The Relief Corps are here. Everybody's talking about leaving. Thought you should know."

"Thanks, Hart." Jeckie remembered something. "That Terror Firma man, the one in charge-"

"Elysion," he prompted.

"Did he say anything about why all this happened?"

She could see him thinking. "Yeah. I asked him about that. All he said was 'revenge'."

"Are you sure?" she asked disappointedly.

He nodded. "I'm absolutely su- Oh, are you _positive_ about that, Timber Wolf?"

Jeckie sighed again. "Thanks, Hart."

She hung up on him and walked back into the room. "I have news."

* * *

"And who are _you_ to be ordering me around, Inferno?" Duplicate Boy asked.

"Having problems?" A mild voice came from behind them.

They all turned, chagrined, to face Leland McCauley.

"So what seems to be the problem?"

"Gas Girl's team nearly got themselves destroyed on Orando because they didn't have a plan." Duplicate Boy said politely.

Inferno glared at his back.

"Of course," McCauley, and smiled icily. "I heard you… _reprimanding_ her. Quite forcefully."

The boy's face burned.

"It is _possible_ to be polite when you point out what someone did wrong." McCauley continued. "It's actually _quite_ easy. Don't you agree, _Celeste_?"

A young girl had snuck in behind him. She pouted and backed out of the room. "_Yes_, Father."

"I rather think she takes after me, don't you agree?"

"Yes, sir." Everyone but Inferno chorused. She had gone back to sitting and staring at the floor.

* * *

_:STOP IT, ALL OF YOU!: _Saturn Girl blasted everyone's mind. _:I AM TIRED OF YOUR ARGUING, AND I WANT IT TO STOP.:_

They all reeled in their seats or staggered around if they were standing.

"This has gone on long enough," she said. "You all know how I feel about this issue. I know that there are people who disagree with me. The _rest_ of you need to get over the fact that others feel differently than you do. _And live with it_."

Imra glared at Shrinking Violet and Sun Boy especially. "If you can't get along, just don't talk to each other. If you're talking near each other, be _polite_."

Everyone looked at her and she looked back. "_PLEASE_. This is getting out of hand. Every time Brainiac 5 comes up, there is a fight."

" Now; this _will not_ happen again."

* * *

"So these terrorists are seeking revenge?" The King asked.

"So they say." Princess Projectra said.

"I don't remember ever even hearing of these people before." one of the nobles squished against the wall said.

"How can they want revenge if we've never done anything against them?" said another.

Jeckie flipped idly through the stack of the most recent records by her seat as the conversation went on.

She frowned and sat up straighter. "Are you all sure none of you have ever heard of Terror Firma?"

"That's just what we've been saying, isn't it Princess?" The Seneschal said testily. The heat from all the people crammed in the room was getting to him.

"This record says a man who claimed to be Terror Firma's leader had an audience with Father the day before they destroyed the city."

"I- I would remember that!" protested the Chronicler. "I have written everything in this room for decades!"

"And I would remember having an audience with any of those- people." The King said.

The assembled nobles all agreed.

"Wilhelm?" the Queen asked. "Do you remember this?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Who says they wanted revenge against Orando?"

* * *

"So no one remembered meeting this guy even though the Chronicler swore he really did write that record?" Chameleon Boy asked.

"That does seem to be the case. I just can't figure out how no one could remember." Projectra had finally managed to wrench herself free of the Noble's meeting and get back to her team.

"If it wasn't Orando they wanted revenge on, then who?" Tyroc asked. "They went through a lot of trouble to destroy some countryside and a city just to almost get caught."

"How about the next time we catch these guys our Fearless Leader over here reads their minds?" Lightning Lad joked.

"Garth; don't even joke. You know I won't do that. That is a gross subversion of my morals."

"I know, I know," he smiled at her. "I'm messing with you."

"Stop it."

"Alright, alright." Cos said. "Back on topic. If Terror Firma didn't want revenge against Orando, then who was it?"

"A specific Orandan?" Bouncing Boy asked. "One with terrorist leanings who backed out?"

"We would have heard about them getting captured and escaping before this." Triplicate Girl pointed out.

"Maybe they're really good escape artists." Tinya threw up her hands. "Ones that can escape from people's thoughts just like they do from jail cells."

"That's what it sounds like." Shrinking Violet said.

"Do you think it's us?" Element Lad asked.

Dream Girl looked at him "Why us?"

"They're criminals, what more reason do they need?" Shadow Lass and Ultra Boy had been having their own quiet discussion.

"Gangs on Rimbor attack each other just for existing on the same city block." Jo pointed out. "One group attacks another group 'cause they don't like each other. That's life."

"That's life." Nemesis Kid agreed sullenly.

"So, it's not us they wanted revenge against, right?" Sun Boy asked. "It's some other guys?"

"Would we remember if it was us they wanted revenge against?" Blok asked. Some resting time with lots of thought had brought his body back into more-or-less his original shape. "King Voxv and the other Orandan nobles did not remember."

"It's not as if it is hard for us to forget things. We forgot two members when we rushed out on this mission in the first place." Dawnstar pointed out.

"Wouldn't Saturn Girl remember?" Wildfire asked, safely inside his spare containment suit.

"I think I would," she said. "But I'm not sure how the Orandans managed to forget; so I can't be sure."

"Is it so much forgetting as never remembering?" Lyle asked. "It seems like they just don't remember that Terror Firma was there after they _weren't_ right there."

"It does seem that way." Dawnstar said. Dream Girl nodded.

Element Lad looked troubled. "Can we really be sure that Terror Firma didn't want revenge on us or that they didn't make us forget that we've ever seen or heard of them before?"

"No," Cosmic Boy admitted uncomfortably.

"Then why are we sitting here?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**"Miracle Machine"**

* * *

"So, what's the deal with this miracle thingy again, Tenzil?" Bouncing Boy asked.

Matter-Eater Lad was the leader for this mission. Bouncy wasn't sure that was such a good idea. He always seemed so… carefree. Like Chameleon Boy without the occasional flashes of determination.

"Some crazy Xanthese scientists came up with a machine that can do whatever you want it to." Tenz said.

"Why would they do that?" Chemical King asked, characteristically baffled. "Just thinking about the machine I can come up with things I wouldn't want it used for."

"Isn't _everyone_ from Xanthu crazy anyway?" Phantom Girl didn't expect anyone to answer her question.

"I'm right over here, you know." Star Boy grumbled.

"She has a point, Thom." Dream Girl said. "Xanthu has a higher-than-average percent of residents with mental illnesses. You flip out when you go off your meds, too."

"It's still not _everyone_."

* * *

"Hey, Tenz," Invisible Kid said into the computer. "You there?"

"Hear you loud and clear, Kid. What's up?"

"Saturn Girl figured out you'd left. Why didn't you tell her?"

"Whaddya mean, why didn't I tell her? She assigns the missions, doesn't she?"

"She says she didn't give you this mission."

There was a short silence. "Can she pull me back?"

"I don't think so, no."

"Then I'll just keep leading. Have fun at HQ!"

"But-" Lyle tried to protest. There was a click as Tenzil shut the conversation off. He wondered how he was supposed to tell Imra about this.

* * *

"Down here," said Dream Girl. "Xanthu keeps the Machine under close guard in a solid inertron box."

The mission team touched down in front of an impressive-looking building. A sign on the front identified it as a university.

"They keep the most dangerous invention in the known universe in a box Superman would have a hard time breaking through under a university?" Phantom Girl didn't look like she believed that. "Are you sure that part about close guard is right, Nura?"

"I was just following the coordinates Violet gave me," she said, confused. "She's _got_ to be right, but-"

"Hey Legion!" called a familiar voice.

"When I turn around, this will be a bad dream. When I turn around, this will be a bad dream." Tinya told herself under her breath. She turned, saw who it was, and slapped herself.

She didn't wake up.

Insect Queen was still standing there; with Konk and Atmos.

"I think they might be stalking us." Star Boy muttered.

* * *

"I _know_ I didn't assign Matter-Eater Lad to that mission." Saturn Girl said again.

"He says it couldn't be anyone else." Lyle told her. "You're the one who manages the people who go on missions."

"_You_ were supposed to be on that mission Lyle. Not Tenzil."

"Really?"

"Someone must have tampered with the duty roster."

* * *

"-so Duplicate Boy sent us because we're all from Xanthu and we know the territory so we'd be really good at this and he's still mad at Gas Girl for messing up on Orando so bad and-" Dream Girl tried to block the rest of Insect Queen's dialogue out. She prattled on and didn't seem to share Gas Girl's inclination to wilt in adversity. No matter how many times Star Boy tried to interrupt her, she just kept going.

She noticed Atmos staring at her. Nura wished he would get lost. Having flashes of precognition for a few seconds into the future just made conversations with people she didn't like horrible. Some things just get worse with repetition.

"You have some free time later, Nura?" he asked, and she closed her eyes to avoid seeing the look he gave her. "I'm sure I can get out of work for you."

"In case you hadn't _heard_; _Atmos_," she said coldly. "I'm Deputy Legion Leader. We're in the middle of readjusting our organization. We have to deal with a group of terrorists who destroyed a whole capital city for no reason besides some sort of 'revenge'. The government doesn't trust us anymore. _I have no free time_."

"_None_ of us has any free time." Star Boy said, his voice just as cold. Nura smiled. Sometimes it was nice having someone feel protective about you.

* * *

Chemical King was staring at the building, looking puzzled, trying to figure out why he was there. Star Boy was from Xanthu. Bouncing Boy used to be Legion Leader. Dream Girl was useful anywhere. So was Phantom Girl. He'd spent most of his life locked in a lab with no control over his powers. He was still working on it, to some extent. He was the shyest, most retiring member of the team. Easily forgettable. Condo-he-who-was-ignored. Why was he here?

A tap on his shoulder interrupted his train of thought. He turned.

"Yes?"

Someone in a suit –he assumed it was a professor- cleared her throat.

"You're from the Legion?" she asked uncertainly.

"Oh- Yes."

"Good." she said in obvious relief. She looked past him and spotted the Workforce and Star Boy arguing. "You brought the Planetary Champions too! Wonderful!"

She clapped her hands for attention. Everyone looked at her.

"We had some troubling events yesterday. We received a transmission that said, in quite clear terms, that someone was going to try and steal our- Machine."

"Machine?" Chemical King heard Insect Queen ask under her breath. "What machine?"

"Did the message say who it was from?" Matter-Eater Lad asked. "This could all be some sort of elaborate student prank?"

Condo thought it said a lot about Tenzil that that was what he came up with first.

"No; and none of the students know that the Machine is here."

Atmos butted in before Tenzil could continue. "Well then, take us too it!"

* * *

"Tenz is leading a mission?" Tyroc asked. "Whose idea was that?"

"All Saturn Girl could say is it wasn't hers. She thinks someone messed with the roster." Lyle told him. "Thanks for stopping in."

Tyroc passed Chameleon Boy in the hall. "Hey, Cham, make sure you check with Saturn Girl if you get assigned to a mission. Someone's been messing with the duty roster-"

* * *

For all the hype, Bouncing Boy thought, there wasn't all that much security on the Miracle Machine. The box was only about as big as a large crate. Only two blast-proof doors hid it. People walked into the lab behind them every day to work.

Xanthu needed to get a better grip on what constituted 'good security'.

"This is it?" Dream Girl had her hands on her hips. "I thought it would be… bigger."

"Didn't you see this in one of your dreams?" Phantom Girl asked.

"Dreams don't give a good sense of perspective sometimes."

"Alright then!" Tenzil exclaimed. "Bouncy, you take the first set of doors. Thom, the second. Me and Tinya and Condo and Nura will stay in here."

"I think we-" Atmos began.

Star Boy cut him off. "-should patrol the corridors?"

"That's a great idea!" Insect Queen started back down the protected hallway. "We'll call you if you see anything!"

"The point was we wouldn't be able to hear them behind the blast doors, right?" Bouncy asked after they were out of earshot.

"Of course." said Star Boy.

* * *

"So no one knows how somebody got into the computer in the first place." Ultra Boy finished telling his audience.

"You aren't leading us on, are you?" Wildfire asked suspiciously.

"Of course not." Jo said virtuously.

"This sounds very serious." Projectra said.

"Definitely." Triplicate Girl agreed. "Someone should do something."

* * *

Insect Queen was crawling along the corridor walls as a Garden Spider. Konk walked along below her, popping her gum. Atmos was just down the hall, bragging.

"I knew Nura –Dream Girl- before she was in the Legion. She was a travelling-show fortune-teller for a few years, you know. The manager had hired me for security detail. He heard all about my reputation on Xanthu a few years back."

"So I was walking around one day, doing my job, and I walk by this tent. Heard shouting. Just had to get in there, do my job. There's this guy sitting on one side of this tiny table; she was sitting on the other. I pick the guy up by the collar and throw him out. I turn to her and-"

"Blah blah blah." Konk said sarcastically. "These stories of yours always end the same. You find trouble, you save the girl, girl falls madly in love with you."

She popped her gum again. "Dream Girl didn't seem too impressed by you earlier."

"Those Legion jerks ruined her. She used to have taste."

"I'm glad it's improved, then."

Insect Queen pushed herself off the wall and morphed into a dragonfly. She could do without the arguing.

* * *

"So. Nura." Matter-Eater Lad rubbed his hands together. "That Atmos jerk. You said you knew him?"

"When I was Madame Mysterio." she groaned. "The manager in the travelling-fair show I worked in hired him for security. No one else would take a job for such a seedy place. There was this drunk guy this one time, wanted to know if he'd get a response for his resume the next day. I said I didn't see it happening then, but he should try some other places. He wasn't happy to hear it and started talking about how he'd been looking for absolutely forever."

"You know how drunks can get really loud when they talk? He was one of those. Atmos was walking by and decided to take a chance and threw the other guy out. Sat right down in his seat and started hitting on me."

"Creep." Tinya muttered.

"I don't think I like him." Condo said.

"Good." Nura looked at the ceiling. "I really wish he'd just get out of my life and stay that way."

* * *

"I highly doubt that anyone could tamper with the duty roster." Dawnstar said. "COMPUTO has better security than that."

"Has anyone been upkeeping it?" Element Lad asked.

"I am not sure. Shrinking Violet seems as if she would be able to do such a thing." Blok sat on the floor, stroking a small potted plant.

"We should go ask." Dawnstar strode out of the room.

* * *

Insect Queen was a fly on the wall in the foyer of the building. People walked and talked below her. Konk and Atmos had split up some time ago, taking different routes through the building.

A large group of people started coming in through the doors. Lonna watched them, trying to figure out what they were doing. Often, the only thing to do on surveillance was people-watch. And if someone caught you with your mind wandering, you could claim you'd been doing your job.

The group didn't seem to end. More and more people poured through. Slowly she realized there was a commotion outside. The building shook and one of the walls blew through.

A large, padded alien stepped through, followed by a blonde-haired girl.

* * *

Condo was still pondering the question 'why am I here?' when Nura's head snapped down from the spot on the ceiling she had been staring at.

"They're here."

* * *

"What do you _mean_, someone's gotten into the computer?" Shrinking Violet asked, indignant. "I would _know_ if that happened."

There was a clatter farther back in the lab.

"Norg! Do you know anything about this?"

Lyle materialized from behind a large, complicated looking contraption. "Know about what?"

"This rumor going around HQ that the computer's been hacked."

"Hacked? No, Matter-Eater Lad only got assigned to a mission that Saturn Girl was positive she didn't give him. Where did that come from? Tyroc was in here earlier and I told him no one was really sure why that happened-"

He stopped suddenly.

"Figures it was you, Norg." Violet said disgustedly.

* * *

The walls trembled, even past the first blast door. Bouncing Boy got ready for a confrontation. It sounded like whoever it was was close.

The doors spiraled open. No one was there.

The walls kept shaking.

Star Boy wondered if he should go see if Bouncy was alright. He had started toward the first set of blast doors when there was a giant crash from behind the second set.

* * *

"I did _not_ say that." Saturn Girl told Princess Projectra.

"That's what people are saying out there."

"No one hacked the computer. I'm fairly sure that I mis-clicked something when I was assigning missions."

She got up from her chair and headed for the door; Jeckie following around behind her.

"The entire idea is ridiculous. No one could hack COMPUTO."

* * *

The wall next to Phantom Girl collapsed inward. Something, some instinct, told her it would be a good idea to go intangible. The big alien from Orando, the one that had attacked the Princess, cannoned through her.

The other member of Terror Firma, the flame girl, came in after him.

Tinya turned just in time to see Condo put up his hands to defend himself. The big alien staggered around, his metabolism slowing. She made a note to herself to tell Lyle it was time for him to give his boyfriend another pep talk. It seemed all he did was forget how powerful he was.

The fire girl raised her arms and directed her flames at the inertron box that held the Miracle Machine.

It took Phantom Girl a minute to realize what she was doing.

The girl wasn't strong enough to tear through the inertron, but there was nothing to stop her from melting through it.

* * *

Dream Girl grabbed Matter-Eater Lad's arm. "We have to get the Miracle Machine out of here, now! It won't take much longer for her to heat the box up enough that it melts!"

Tenzil thought for a moment. "Get me Tinya."

Nura dodged Condo's struggle and ducked around the other side of the box. "Tinya, you need to get over to Tenz."

"Got it."

She watched as Phantom Girl phased through the inertron box.

* * *

"Turn around and do it again." Tenzil ordered.

"What?" went Tinya.

"You can phase through the inertron, just like I thought. Turn around and grab the Miracle Machine and get it out of here."

Phantom Girl hadn't known Tenz was a planner. This would turn out better than expected.

* * *

Condo struggled under the big alien's grip. If his next move wasn't quick, he would be crushed.

It was ridiculously easy to get his hands wrapped around his captor's wrist. He concentrated, making sure all his power was turned outward; not inward. Controlling chemical reactions was tricky, and turned back on him just as easily as he turned it against others.

His captor dropped, out stone cold. Chemical King rolled sideways, avoiding the falling body. He looked up just in time to see Dream Girl and Matter-Eater Lad running out the hole in the wall Terror Firma had blown to get in. The fire girl saw him, still on the floor. She turned her flame on him.

He held up his hands again, and forced his power _out_. The flames sputtered and died as he interrupted the chemical reaction that made it burn. She looked dumbfounded, and he took the opportunity to run after his teammates.

* * *

Dream Girl and Matter-Eater Lad met Phantom Girl in the tunnel that had been smashed through the building's walls. She held the Miracle Machine in her arms.

"Tenzil, we have to do something about this thing now." Nura said. "Terror Firma will be back any minute, and we can't lead them back outside. There's too many students and civilians out there for us to protect."

Chemical King came running up the tunnel.

"The fire girl-" he stopped to catch his breath. "-she's coming after me."

"Tenzil!"

* * *

Matter-Eater Lad was quiet as he considered his options. None of them were very good. One was- preferable. At least for everyone else.

"I guess there's nothing for it then." he sighed.

"Nothing for _what_?" Phantom Girl asked suspiciously.

"I'm gonna have to _eat_ this thing."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Condo asked.

"No."

* * *

Konk, Atmos, and Insect Queen ran down toward the room where the Miracle Machine was kept. Bouncing Boy met them coming out.

"Hey," Konk asked. "You know what's going on?"

"Absolutely no idea," he said. "But Terror Firma got in behind the blast doors somehow. Everyone else is still back there."

Atmos shoved him aside. "Let me deal with this."

He blasted the doors open with a burst of energy. There was a loud crash and the ceiling of the hallway fell in.

"So we're getting in there-how?" Konk drawled.

* * *

"If you're not sure if this is safe," Condo said. "Why are you doing it?"

"If I don't, a terrorist organization bent on some sort of mysterious revenge will get their hands on a machine that will do anything they can think of. I'd rather not take a trip through a crazy guy's psyche."

Condo still didn't seem convinced.

"Trust me, I'm in charge."

Tenzil looked at the Machine distastefully and opened his mouth wide.

* * *

The pile of rubble from the collapsed ceiling shifted and floated out of the door.

"Will you try not to _crush_ me next time?" Star Boy asked, annoyed. "I'd really rather no-"

His sentence was interrupted by the large alien running him over, roaring.

* * *

Dream Girl felt a flash of prescience coming on. She saw the fire girl running down the tunnel, then falter. A loud roar came echoing up from the room where the Machine had been stored. The girl turned and ran back the other way.

* * *

"_'Trust me, I'm in charge?'_" Saturn Girl asked doubtfully. "And then he _ate_ it?"

"I wasn't going to try and stop him, if that's what you mean." Phantom Girl protested. "He was dead-set on it. Good thing we had Condo there, though. He managed to get the energies from the thing slowed down enough that we weren't trying to avoid reality-destroying weirdness all the way back to the ship."

"And the Workforce pulled another disappearing act?"

"They're good at that."

"What about Terror Firma?"

"After that big guy ran me over," Star Boy said. "The fire girl came dashing in to see what was going on. She called somebody and some sort of mini-stargate opened up and they got away."

He slapped his forehead. "Dang! I forgot to ask how the Workforce knew we were there! _We _didn't even know where the Miracle Machine was until we got to the university!"

"How long is it going to take until Tenz is back on his feet?" Bouncy asked, concerned. "He looked horrible on the ship."

"Triplicate Girl says she doesn't know. It seems like _no one _knows anything these days."

There were questioning looks from everyone that was on the Xanthu mission.

"Tenzil wasn't supposed to be on that mission. Lyle was supposed to go instead. Now I have to deal with this crazy rumor going around HQ that someone hacked the computer."

"So that was the side effect." Dream Girl muttered to herself.

"What?" asked Saturn Girl.

"I put Tenzil on that mission. I just knew we'd need him; and it would cause some sort of trouble. I decided whatever that trouble it was would be less trouble than losing the Miracle Machine to those guys."

Saturn Girl gave her a 'you've_ got_ to be kidding me' face.

"I thought I told you."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"**Liberation"**

* * *

Shrinking Violet was just happy Lyle wasn't around. If she had to be on the same ship with Cosmic Boy –just the two of them- she couldn't deal with her 'assistant'.

There was plenty to catch up on. The files needed to be updated, some new software she'd completed needed to be uploaded, there were computer searches to be sorted through, hardware updates to be made… an endless list of things, really. Supercomputers were complicated.

* * *

Cosmic Boy thought Saturn Girl had an ulterior motive in assigning him to take the ship out to patrol the starlanes. By any Legion standards, there should be three people, minimum, on any mission. If it was anyone else he was with, he would have blamed Terror Firma and the Workforce for straining the team's resources.

But it was Shrinking Violet, the most outspoken proponent of Brainiac 5, with him somewhere on board.

Cos knew he hadn't really contributed much to the ongoing debate after that meeting when the Legion got back from space. Colossal Boy had mellowed somewhat in his opposition. Sun Boy and Nemesis Kid were the only true hold-outs. If Brainiac 5 appeared out of nowhere this instant, Rokk would take him back. With reservations.

It seemed to him that Saturn Girl had taken his silence as continuing antagonism. It was bad enough she could probably sense his occasional bouts of shame at his failures, but now she was _assuming_ things about him.

* * *

"Hey, Fearless Leader," Lightning Lad knocked on the doorframe of Saturn Girl's apartment. "When's the last time you ate?"

Imra looked up from her work. "Breakfast, Garth. You were there."

"Right. What about getting up to use the bathroom?"

"A little while ago-"

"Walked around?"

She gave him a look. "If you want something Garth, just say it. I'm busy."

"Now, see, that's it," he told her. "You're busy. You need to take a break."

"I can't _afford _to take a break. There's too much to do with Terror Firma and the Workforce and all the little crimes that people commit no matter what else is happening-"

"Now you're starting to sound like Cos." Garth grinned. "He never had time for anything but work either. Look where it landed him."

He pulled out a flyer and two tickets. "I've got a restaurant reservation for 8 o'clock, and tickets for that arts fair you were talking about a couple of days ago. I ran this past Dreamy yesterday and she's covering for you. She's got Lyle and Dawnstar and Jeckie for backup. She'll be fine. She also says you're going, and I'm not allowed to let you back out of it."

Saturn Girl rested her chin in one of her hands. "You really want me to go on this date with you, don't you?"

"Of course I do! What sort of a person would I be if I didn't want to take my girlfriend places?"

Imra smiled to herself. "Go get changed out of your uniform. I'll meet you out front in five minutes."

* * *

Shrinking Violet finished rewiring the last of the hardware when she realized just how odd this situation was. She and Cosmic Boy had taken the entire cruiser out to patrol a small part of the starlanes that hadn't been attacked in years.

Saturn Girl must have been planning something. Salu suspected the idea was to get the two of them out of HQ. Between Lyle, Sun Boy, and Nemesis Kid; it seemed like she was constantly arguing with someone. Imra was probably tired of listening to her.

Cosmic Boy was always in a better mood when he had something to do. Not being leader made him restless. He just tried to get himself assigned to every mission and solve every little problem that came up; he acted driven. Always worrying.

She would help. These new hardware updates should take some of the anxiety out of his mind.

Cos looked up as Violet walked in.

"I finished making the hardware updates," she said. "The computer should be able to cope with all the new input from the software I installed. We've got increased range for picking up distress signals, more memory for case and research files, and improved life-support systems. Some of that could be diverted to the medbay for extra power in an emergency."

"Good work, Shrinking Violet."

She looked at him oddly. He went back to staring moodily at the main controls console.

It beeped.

"Incoming transmission," Violet said urgently as Cosmic Boy ceded his chair to her. He went to the pilot's seat. Violet put the callers up on the big screen embedded in the main viewing window.

It was the President-General of Imsk.

"Ma'am." Shrinking Violet stood and saluted. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Terrorists."

* * *

The arts fair spread itself all through the partitioned-off city blocks. Jewelry vendors, pottery-makers, painters, traditional artists- every artisan type was represented.

Garth carried a bag while Imra and he browsed and pointed out pieces they thought were particularly striking. A painting of the Lady Augusta Ada King Technological Institute at one booth, a sculpture of a Xanthese dancer in a storefront window, a pair of traditional-Central Naltorian-styled earrings in a large tent.

The sun sunk lower over the city skyline as they looked. Garth checked the time.

"Imra," he said. She looked up from where she had been absorbed by a copy of an old Dryadian text, translated into Interlac. He pointed to the setting sun. "Time to go."

They strolled down the street, vendors packing up around them. Garth spotted an alley; and checked his mental map of the city. "This way," he told Imra, pointing. "Shortcut."

They were halfway down the alley when someone pushed off from the wall behind a trash carrier. "Hey there, hero."

* * *

"I'm not sure I should go on this mission." Cosmic Boy told Violet.

"There's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't," she told him. "Besides, we're the only Legionnaires for light-years. They won't get help unless we go."

"How do you know Imsk will accept a Braalian?"

"They know better than to keep you off-world just because your planet has been fighting with my planet on and off for a few centuries over mining rights. Imsk cares about what you've done, not where you've come from."

The computer screen showed twelve minutes to Imsk. Cos kept trying.

"That doesn't mean anyone will work with me."

"I'll work with you. And have words with anyone who says otherwise."

"Even if it's the President-General?"

Violet rolled her eyes and turned to him, exasperated. "Stop worrying about it so much, okay? The worst that can happen is that I'll have to talk to everyone and then tell you about it."

* * *

Imra squinted at the form, then smiled. "Hello, Lydda. How has patrol been?"

"Quiet," the Sub told her. "You're the most interesting thing in hours."

"How'd you know it was us?" Garth asked.

"You're a hard pair to miss," Night Girl told him. "How many red-haired guys with a lightning scar and a custom prosthetic arm walk around with an elegant Titanian?"

Saturn Girl smiled at the compliment. Lightning Lad just looked put off. "No one's _said_ anything."

"No one wanted a scene," Lydda told him. "How's Rokk been doing?"

"He's doing much better now; you can call him after he gets back from figuring out how the Workforce always knows where we are." Imra told her.

Night Girl looked concerned. "Are you sure he's up for that? Rokk isn't the reconnaissance type."

"Shrinking Violet and Karate Kid are with him. He'll be fine."

* * *

Violet stood with her hands on her hands and stared at the shallow crater that marked the place where a government building had once stood. The fire-blackened shell of another stood next to it, and there was a collapsed ruin across the street.

Cos got up from where he had been examining the burned building and came over, eyeing the Imskian Military Police Officer standing guard near Salu warily.

"This wasn't Terror Firma," he said. "The burned and collapsed buildings could have come from Kynda and Elysion, but they haven't used explosives in the entire five months they've operated openly."

"I know that. So who was it?"

The Military Police Officer muttered something.

"What was that?"

"Braal, Ma'am," he said, saluting smartly. "It had to be Braal."

Cos shifted uncomfortably.

"Why does it have to be Braal?"

"We're at war with Braal, Ma'am. There's no reason not to attack us."

"Is there any reason why they should?"

"The war, Ma'am; like I said."

Salu sighed and turned to the officer. "Sir, I want to speak with your commanding officer. _Clearly_, you failed to learn basic diplomacy and social skills. I wish to inform your commanding officer of this lapse and ask for information on any recent notable terrorist activities and reasons thereof."

The officer managed to hide his embarrassment and walk off with a "Yes, Ma'am!"

* * *

"Shrinking Violet should keep him on track," Night Girl agreed.

There was a clatter from the shadows of the alley.

"You were going to tell them something." Stone Boy emerged into the light.

"Right. Thanks for the reminder, Dag."

She turned to Imra. "Did you know you have a lurker hanging around HQ?"

"A lurker?"

"Tall alien guy. Dunno where he's from. Ebony-black, white eyes, white hooded outfit, ice-blue accents, silver gauntlets. Good at hiding."

* * *

"That's not the commanding officer." Cosmic Boy whispered.

Shrinking Violet saluted the President-General again. "What is it, Ma'am?"

"I was informed that you asked to see a certain officer's commander. He wasn't on hand, so I came instead. What seems to be the matter?"

"All we know is that this wasn't Terror Firma, Ma'am. I would like to know of any recent terrorist activities and their reasons."

The President-General gestured to the two Legionnaires. "Walk with me."

They strolled down the street, passing still-intact buildings on the way towards the President-General's guard.

"There hasn't been any terrorist activity lately. That was why I had the Legion called. We know that this Terror Firma organization has been causing trouble in population centers."

"If it was Terror Firma, Ma'am, you would have seen them." Violet said. "That's how we knew they weren't to blame for this; and the fact that there was a building that was decimated with explosives. Terror Firma's modus operandi has _never_ included explosives."

"I had wondered about that, when the reports first came in," the President-General admitted.

"Ma'am?" Violet asked hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"The officer I sent back with the message… I sent him back for lacking basic diplomacy. He was of the opinion that Braal destroyed these buildings."

Cos cleared his throat nervously. "Madam President-General? I don't believe it was Braal."

She looked at him.

"I know it sounds biased; but the type of explosive used is wrong for that. Braal doesn't use that sort of explosive for mining. Any sort of combustible material is carefully regulated because of the mines. No one wants a collapse because the wrong grade was used. Braal is a poor planet, Ma'am. A private group couldn't have done it; the Legion would have heard of a robbery of money or explosives that big. Only the companies would be able to afford enough explosives to bring down a building that size; and they would have to have a _very_ good reason."

The President-General checked her surroundings carefully before speaking in a low voice.

"If Braal did find something out, then whoever destroyed the buildings must have some very _odd _ideas. We have been considering -_quietly_, mind you- giving Braal partial asteroid mining rights. Imsk has better things to do than fight wars with a planet already below the Intergalactic Poverty Line. It's time someone realized that."

They had reached the President-General's guard.

"Do you have somewhere to stay for the night?" she asked. "I would assume that you would be staying on your ship; but it is docked in a _government_ hangar. It would be quite unfortunate to wake up tomorrow to find you both dead."

"I hadn't thought about it that way, Madam." Cosmic Boy said.

"Cos," Violet said. "My mother lives about a half-hour's fast flight out of the city. We could stay there."

"That would be the best possible solution at the present," the President-General put in. "I doubt terrorists would seek the Legion outside the city."

Violet looked questioningly at Cos.

* * *

Garth and Imra talked across their table.

"So, Shvaughn. How do you feel about her?"

"I like her more than I thought I would," Garth said. "The SciPol have always been rude and ungrateful when it comes to us. I was sure Chief Norg would give us somebody horrible. She's been pushy, but respectful. She listens to you."

"I would have been Chief Norg's intern if Mr. Brande hadn't been on that ship. Amazing how life can change."

"It seems to take a turn for the unexpected in the Legion more than anywhere else."

"And, in case you hadn't noticed, Shvaughn and Jan seem to be _very_ friendly."

"At least they aren't being as bad as Violet and Brainy were. Jan and Shvaughn actually sorta-kinda admit they _like_ each other."

"Oh, Violet and Brainy admitted they liked each other, just never to anyone else."

"You would know."

"Have you heard from Ayla lately?"

He smiled. "Yeah. Every time we get a report in the Daily Galaxy, she calls and demands the details. I think she brags about me at school. The harvest should be in soon. No storms in sight, no attacks, good year to be a farmer."

"My family doesn't talk to me much," Imra sighed. "Everyone just gets their information from the Galactic News Broadcasts. Jancel used to talk to me more. What about the rest of your family?"

"Mekt called after we got back from space. It was nice hearing from him."

"Remember how much Rokk flipped out when he heard you spent those couple of days with the Light Speed Vanguard?"

"Yeah. That was our first big fight in a year. Back when we got along more."

"It seems everyone fights more nowadays. It's hard to believe we all used to get along." she paused. "So many of them have similar backgrounds, you'd think we wouldn't argue as much."

* * *

Cos and Violet touched down in front of the house. It was two stories tall, and a bit on the small side. Violet put a finger to her lips as they approached the door. She stuck her hand against the scanner-pad and it opened.

"Mama!" she called. "I'm home!"

A woman came running down the stairs, taking them two at a time. She almost came up to Cos's forehead, and would have been termed 'delicate' if it wasn't for the obvious muscles showing in her arms. He suspected the rest of her body was just as muscled.

Mother and daughter hugged tightly, ignoring him for the moment.

Eventually Violet's mother pulled away and looked at him.

"You would be Cosmic Boy, yes?"

"Yes, Mrs. Digby."

"_Ms_. Digby. Salu's father and I split up before she was born."

"Sorry, Miz."

"Mama, Cos and I are staying on Imsk overnight, and the President-General doesn't think it's a good idea to stay in the cruiser-"

"Investigating the terrorist attacks, hm?"

"Yes, Mama."

"I'd much rather have you safe here than staying in some drafty hangar there."

She noticed Cosmic Boy's mostly-suppressed unease. The woman grinned widely.

"I'll have you know, young man, I was a soldier before I went mercenary. Had a few tussles with your folk, too. Stop looking at me like that. You're just as welcome here as Sal."

* * *

"Wait a minute, Garth." Saturn Girl grabbed his arm. Legion HQ rose up across the plaza. "I want to see if I can find that lurker Lydda mentioned."

She extended her telepathetic senses out around the building. There.

Imra flew off, staying low to the ground. She came up behind the lurker and mind-blasted him. He staggered and she grabbed the back of his tunic, rising up higher than the roof of HQ.

"Who are you?"

He was very still. "Saturn Girl, Ma'am, I am Spy. I am a member of the Workforce. Duplicate Boy has me here indefinitely. I am to send back reports of where the Legion is heading on missions so the Workforce may do their duty."

She let him slip half an inch. "Here's a hint," she hissed. "Keep the Galactic News Broadcast on at all times. Set a computer to give alerts when the Daily Galaxy reports on certain types of stories. Basically; _do your own research_."

Imra flew down to a nearby building and let Spy go. He fell a few feet before hitting the roof. She floated above him. "Get back to Duplicate Boy and McCauley. Remind them its bad form to rely on others for Intel."

Lightning Lad smiled when he saw her come flying back. "I know that look. That guy's not coming back, is he?"

"He'd better not."

* * *

"Would the Dark Circle be interested in those buildings?" Cos asked. They were sitting on couches in the Digby living room. Violet's mother was somewhere upstairs.

"I can't think of any reason why," Violet said. "They weren't very important buildings. No important records or officials. They were part of Imsk's Interstellar Traffic-Regulations Agency."

"In a way, that's just more damning. That agency is the one that hires mercenaries to chase Braalian mining skiffs out of the asteroid fields."

"True. You do realize that those skiffs are technically pirates, right?"

"It still doesn't change the fact that Braal's mines have been running out for years. Barely anyone makes money there anymore."

Salu changed the subject. "Do you find it weird that Saturn Girl sent just the two of us here?"

"Yeah," he paused; not sure if he wanted to continue. "I think she was trying to get us to talk."

"About what?"

"Well, that starlane isn't used much. We would have had plenty of time alone together-"

"I _really_ hope this isn't going where it _sounds_ like its going."

"I thought Imra wanted us to talk about Brainiac 5."

Violet froze. "What about him?"

He noted how controlled her voice was.

"I know that I wasn't very supportive after that incident. I also know I spoke callously." His face twitched. "I still stand by my reasons, but I- I want- need to-"

"You're worse about apologizing then he is." Violet smirked good-humouredly. "Neither of you like to admit when you're wrong."

He smiled, relieved. "If he showed up at HQ; I'd accept him back on the team. We need him too much, and my feelings can't get in the way of productivity."

He hoped that Violet didn't guess which feelings he was talking about. His anger toward the Coluan had faded months ago; it was the others that stuck around.

"I'm not sure he's ever coming back." he heard her say quietly. "I know Dream Girl keeps talking like he will; but she wasn't there with him, afterwards."

"What do you mean?"

Salu rested her elbows on her knees and thought about how she wanted to put it.

"That fear you've had since landing on Imsk? _He_ felt that way, being around the rest of us. It wasn't just you and Gim and Hart, either. It was everybody. He couldn't bear being out of his room for longer than he had too, and then he'd go right back if someone came along."

"Were we really that horrible to him?" Cos said, half to himself.

"He would have felt like that even if the whole team was welcoming. Brainiac-" her face twisted at having to say his name. "-convinced him that he was a horrible, evil person. He was having a hard time living with himself, when he left."

Violet looked distressed. "Lyle and I have been looking for him since he left. We haven't been able to figure out what happened to him. He asked Dawnstar if she would track him, but she just said he had to find his way by himself. Brainy's either doing a really good job hiding or the- the self-loathing and the trauma-"

It took Rokk a minute to notice the tense, awkward silence after she stopped talking.

"I'm sure he's fine." he told her uncomfortably.

Violet smiled weakly. "So… no arguing?"

"No arguing." he agreed. "So- if this wasn't the work of Terror Firma or the Dark Circle, what other terrorist organizations do we know?"

* * *

Saturn Girl stopped dead in the hallway on her way to page the team she had sent out to find out how the Workforce had been shadowing them.

"_Karate Kid_?"

He looked at her quizzically. "Yes?"

"You're supposed to be out in the cruiser with Cos and Violet!"

"I am?"

"_Yes_! You were supposed to be figuring out how the Workforce managed to follow us everywhere!"

Timber Wolf turned the corner. "That's not what they said."

"What do you mean?"

"They went out to patrol the starlane that goes from Marzal to Tharr."

"Why are they there?"

"That's where you told them to go."

"No, it's not!"

* * *

Somehow, Cos managed to drag himself out of the guest bed to go to breakfast. Violet was at the table.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Didn't sleep well," he mumbled.

He looked at the papers they had collected the night before. Violet must have brought them out to look at over her food.

"Got anything new?"

"No. I have no idea how you could lock yourself in your office for hours and do this sort of thing."

"It needed to be done. I can't believe you can stay cooped up in that lab all day."

"I enjoy it." She dove for a stack of papers that slipped off the table. "Valor save me from paperwork."

Violet looked up to Cos's stunned expression. "What?"

_The Imskians surrounded him. They all carried energy-pulse weapons. He felt the wall behind him. They wore ceramic-based body armor and the weapons were ceramic-plated. His magnetism wouldn't work. Why were they here? He wasn't mining the ore from the asteroids! He was a Legionnaire-_

_A Braalian Legionnaire wearing a miner's coveralls and a transuit. _

_Lord Valor, please save me. Give me opportunity to break free. Let me live…_

He shook off the vestiges of his dream from the previous night.

"I've got something."

"What?" Violet asked again.

"The Imskian Liberation Army."

* * *

Imra hadn't slept at all last night. She had been going through COMPUTO's log to see where the message about the mission had been garbled. Her own usage history showed that she had entered Shrinking Violet, Cosmic Boy, and Karate Kid for a mission to investigate the Workforce.

For some reason, it hadn't been received that way.

"Lyle?" she spoke into her ring.

"Hey there, Fearless Leader. Still up?"

"Of course. Will you check the duty roster from your ring?"

"Yeah…? Just a minute."

His face disappeared from the air above her ring. She brooded until it popped back up.

"It lists Shrinking Violet, Cosmic Boy, and Karate Kid as out on a mission. Karate Kid's here, isn't he?"

"Yes," she sighed. "That's the problem."

* * *

Shrinking Violet and Cosmic Boy stood across from the President-General.

"The Imskian Liberation Army? They aren't terrorists."

"They act as terrorists, Ma'am." Shrinking Violet told her. "Just because they're employed by the government doesn't mean that it gives them authority to use the measures they do."

"It's their _job_ to evict trespassing Braalian mining skiffs from Imskian sovereign space."

"But not to maul and dismember, Ma'am. A few miners have been _killed_ by the mercenaries the Imskian Interstellar Traffic-Regulations Agency employs."

"You very well know they're the best at what they do."

"What they _do_ is employ excessive force and style themselves as independent from the government structure."

"Very well. Let's follow this theory for a bit. Why would the self-styled 'Imskian Liberation Army' destroy the buildings of those who employ them?"

"How much access are they allowed to the workings of ImskGov, Madame?" Cos asked. "They're paid to keep miners off the asteroids. The idea you're 'quietly considering' would leave them out of a job and having to cooperate with those they despise. In my experience, people are averse to allying themselves with 'enemies'."

"Some of my consultant's aides _do_ have a reputation for being gossip-mongers," the President-General said with a scowl. "Doubtless the 'Liberation Army' would have at least a few members using the communal mess at the same time as the aides."

"It's worth investigating at the very least, Ma'am." Violet said.

The General-President looked at her. "That still leaves the problem of how to capture these terrorists."

"We have a plan, Ma'am. The terrorists don't necessarily know we're here yet. Have a press conference. Say that we're staying in the hangar and that we're close to figuring out who the terrorists are. Use the excuse that Imsk deserves some sort of reassurance that progress is being made. Make sure you mention Cosmic Boy is here."

"And the two of you are going to take on an entire terrorist squad on by yourselves?"

"Ah-"

The President-General stood. "Ms. Salu Digby, called Shrinking Violet;" the Legionnaire in question snapped to attention. "I _cannot_ let you face this alone. By virtue of your service in the Legion of Superheroes, you are accorded the rank of Specialist Lieutenant-Corporal on Imsk. I would be _exceedingly_ lax in my duties if I let you go without a military squad to help in this operation."

* * *

Imra stared, brooding, at the inner workings of COMPUTO. Lyle was pointing out various things of importance in it.

"I don't think this is it." she said.

"No," Lyle sat back on his heels and sighed. "I don't think it is either. Faulty hardware shouldn't mess up purely electronic signals. Not in such a way that it's still readable, at least."

"Is there anything else you can think of?"

"Well, I checked the basic software, and from what I know it _looks_ good; but I didn't write it and programming isn't my strong suit. I'd need Violet to give it a look-over."

"Do you think someone pulled a prank?"

"No way. Not in the Legion, at least. I wouldn't do something like that, and Cham and Tenzil know better than to mess with the roster. They wouldn't be here if they didn't take what we do seriously."

"Did Dream Girl-"

"I asked as soon as you came to me with the problem. She didn't."

Imra thought back to that mission. Two months ago, was it? Time passed strangely when you were saving the galaxy. There had been a rumor…

"Lyle…?" she asked hesitantly. "Could someone have hacked into COMPUTO? I know I told Jeckie it was impossible…"

"I would have said that too, but remember Imperiex?"

"That was different, Lyle. He had technology a full millennium ahead of ours and was actually inside the memory banks. I'm talking about someone getting into our intranet and planting a virus or some such thing."

"See, that's part of the security of our system," Lyle said. "We have an intranet. It's not connected to anything else besides modems specifically keyed to it. No one would be able to change it without access to one of those modems. One of the computers in HQ, or the Outpost, or on the cruisers. A flight ring would probably do it, too, but whoever it was would have to be a genius of a hacker."

"The computers here, on the cruiser, and in the outpost are too well-guarded. Is there any chance that someone got hold of a flight ring? Or got a computer not hooked up to the system to hack into it?"

"Flight rings are genetically and mentally keyed to the Legionnaire assigned them. Its one- _was_ one- of Brainy's fail-safes. No one else could use it. Unless they happened to pry one off Ferro Lad's dead body."

"That we would _definitely_ know about. And Mother Saturn forbid it _ever_ happens."

Lyle winced at her tone and continued. "The only way someone would be able to get a foreign computer connected to the Legion's intranet was if they knew all the coding and the passwords. _I _don't know that; _Violet _doesn't know that. The only person who knows about _that_ is Brainy."

* * *

Violet listened in satisfaction to the end of the President-General's press conference. With any luck, the terrorists would be here as soon as possible.

Having a military command was new. She still had to get used to being saluted and addressed as "Ma'am" every few sentences. There was one soldier who actually reminded her of Shvaughn. It was the way she talked.

Cos was fidgeting in his seat. She had never seen him this nervous; not even during the Sun Eater or when the universe was being digitized piece by piece.

"The soldiers aren't going to _attack_ you, you know."

"I'm not worried about the soldiers," he said. "It's the terrorists."

"I've got your back."

The ship shuddered with the impact of a shockwave.

Another round of weapons-fire came shooting over from across the hangar. The Imskian soldiers assigned to Violet fired back.

"Cover me," Cos heard her say as she flicked her hostler straps open. She had picked up her old guns before leaving her mother's house. He was a bit afraid to ask what she thought she needed them for.

"Shrinking Vi-"

She was already flying up near the ceiling, firing at a steep angle onto those below her.

"She's crazy," he muttered to himself before flying over the heads of the soldiers and stretching his powers out toward the attackers.

He saw one of them fly toward the wall. His courage started to come back. This wasn't going to be like his dream.

* * *

Once again, Violet cursed the uselessness of a superpower if _everyone_ around her could do the same thing. If she didn't have these guns, she would be next to useless compared to the soldiers around her.

She could see the attackers from her position. And she could see Cos making good use of his powers: hurtling enemies against the wall, yanking guns from hands, and, every so often, pulling body armor apart. They were distracted. Distracted was good.

She shrank and began to descend.

Everything looked different at a microscopic level. It was hard to tell what was what if you didn't know what the different types microorganisms and molecular structures looked like.

Imskian mercenaries, bounty hunters, and sometimes even soldiers carried atomic-level sensors on them, cobbled together from reverse-engineered from Braalian technology and Imsk's own inventions. The only way for her to sneak up on anyone was if she could get inside one and short-circuit it before anyone noticed.

This attacker seemed to be the leader.

She found the leader's sensor and ran straight into a miniaturized repulsion field. Violet clenched her teeth and shrank smaller. If she could get to the sub-atomic level…

It hurt like nothing else. Imskians were made to shrink, but not _that_ much. She could only hold it for a few seconds. Somehow she managed to get through.

The sensor's technology was easy to disrupt. Now it was just the person.

* * *

The soldiers had managed to overrun the attackers. One of the soldiers grabbed a terrorist by the arm and pulled a badge off from under a body armor plate.

"Would you look at that. These goons are asteroid-patrol."

Another soldier looked at the captives in disgust. "Fine way to treat comrades, hey?"

Cos smiled to himself in satisfaction. They had caught the Imskian Liberation Army in the act.

There was a faint whisper of sound behind him. Someone wrapped an arm around his throat and held a knife-point between his eyes.

* * *

Violet maneuvered carefully over nerves. Not for the first time, she was very grateful for her flight ring. She could move stealthily within a body without being detected until she wished it.

She hit the spinal cord; and cursed under her breath as she joggled a nerve. The brain stem was coming up.

* * *

The hand holding the knife twitched.

"Are you going to shoot me?" the Imskian asked the soldiers around the captives. "I would assume that you were worried about hitting my captive; but surely you wouldn't put more value on this dirt-grubber than a fellow citize-"

The terrorist's hand convulsed and dropped the knife. The Imskian stumbled back, twitching, and then fell to the ground, eyes rolling up in her head. She lay still.

Violet enlarged into view over her body and touched down, staggering. Cos caught her before she could fall.

"Now I know how bad guys feel after Lightning Lad blasts them," she mumbled. "Remind me never to use my body to disrupt brain signals again. It hurts even through flight ring environment-shielding."

"Never block electrical charges with your body," he said, smirking good-naturedly. He helped her back onto the cruiser.

* * *

Imra waited nervously as the cruiser docked in the HQ hangar. If the news reports had been right, Cosmic Boy and Shrinking Violet had gotten into way more trouble than they should have.

The two of them walked off the ship together, speaking amiably.

Together? No almost-strained politeness?

"Cosmic Boy, Violet, I have something to tell you…"

* * *

The two of them just stared at her in disbelief.

"We _what_?" Cos asked. "That really happened?"

"_Seriously_?" said Violet. "The data corruption was that selective?"

"It seems so. Your rings and Karate Kid's are the only ones that read something different than the duty roster."

"You know what I'm starting to hate?" Violet asked. "Mysteries."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"**COMPUTO"**

* * *

"Remember when life was simple?" Phantom Girl asked Shadow Lass. They were lounging on the couches in the common room.

"Simple how?"

"Before the Legion. No fighting, no villains, just uneventful bliss."

"Tinya," Shadow Lass said. "If you enjoyed 'uneventful bliss', you wouldn't _be_ a Legionnaire. And my life has never been uneventful. Talokians are warriors. We _live_ for combat, _thrive_ on challenge-"

"-and blossom under pressure. You sound like my mom's political opponents, Tasmia."

"I detest politics. Yet I must live with it."

"_Now_ you're talking."

* * *

Shvaughn stopped in the lab to see Shrinking Violet cleaning her guns.

"Still no luck?"

"Absolutely none."

She took a chair nearby. Chemical King shifted in his seat on a counter.

"You'd think it was all a systems glitch," she continued. "No matter what I put into the computers, it comes out right. I'm starting to think this is no big deal."

"I don't remember the system having glitches before," Condo said. "Are you sure the firewalls are intact?"

"First thing I checked. They've been attacked, but they're still _in_tact."

"The Science Police's computers had problems sometimes." Shvaughn said, eyeing Violet's guns. "Even the best systems have glitches every so often."

"Not ones made my Brainiac 5."

* * *

Bouncing Boy had challenged Tyroc to a game of billiards.

"6-ball in the left corner."

Bouncy's shot sunk the named ball into the pocket and set the Q-ball, the only one left, into the opposite pocket.

"Why did I accept your challenge to a game, again?" Tyroc asked. "No matter who you play, you always win."

Bouncy grinned. "I'm good at spatial relations and geometry. What more do I need?"

"Someone difficult to play against."

"Good luck with that."

* * *

Ultra Boy watched Karate Kid practicing martial-arts stances from the open doorway of the kitchen. Timber Wolf was characteristically baking, and sneaking glances at Phantom Girl -also visible from the doorway- from her place in the common room. Shadow Lass looked thoughtful as she, too, watched Karate Kid.

"Val," she said. "I think I'm up for another sparring session after your warm-ups. Care for one?"

"Certainly. I never finished your instruction in the finer points of _dambe_, remember?"

"Mind a third wheel in practice?" Ultra Boy asked.

"I don't. Tasmia?"

"At least this way I'll have something amusing to watch when Val pounds you to dust, Jo."

"I do not _pound_ people, Tasmia. That is _not_ good form."

"It _feels_ like a pounding when you're taking it." Jo told him.

* * *

Violet turned back to the computer as an alert pinged up on the screen. She squinted at it as she finished reassembling the last of her guns.

"Why in the name of Valor is it doing _that_?"

"Doing what?" Condo came over and looked at the alert, curious.

"The firewall is unraveling and putting itself back together. There's some sort of code, and it's self-destructing as soon as it's done…"

She pulled up something else onto the screen and scrutinized rapidly-scrolling bits of code. "It's leaving parts of itself behind, attached to some of the systems-"

She swore, grabbed her guns, Shvaughn, and Condo; then dove under the counters just as the Legion HQ's defense systems started up.

* * *

Some sort of animalistic sixth-sense told Timber Wolf that _something bad_ was about to happen. He abandoned his baking and shoved Karate Kid and Shadow Lass to the floor. Phantom Girl looked hugely startled, and then her common sense kicked in and she went intangible. Ultra Boy was a bit slower in catching on, but made up for it switching his invulnerability on and shielding Timber Wolf.

The specially-designed lasers descended from the ceiling and started spraying the room.

"Why is this _happening_?" Tinya yelled over the _pshew_ of heated air. "The defenses are only supposed to work against people who aren't in the computer!"

"How should_ I_ know?" Jo screamed back. "Ask Violet!"

Shadow Lass pulled herself out from under him and Timber Wolf, unsheathing her ceremonial knife as she went.

"She is _not _doing that," Brin muttered to himself.

Tasmia jumped, aided by her flight ring, and grabbed the arm of one of the lasers sticking out of the ceiling. Her flight ring kept her kneeling on the ceiling as she stuck her knife up into the small gap between the laser-arm and the it's hole and twisted it around. Sparks fell and the laser hung loose. Tasmia swung it around and started aiming for the other lasers. A few started smoking and the Talokian yanked the short-circuited laser out of its mounting and let it fall to the floor. She flipped herself down off the ceiling and ran out into the hallway.

"_Fine_ time to leave!" Tinya called after her, turning her attention to a couple remaining lasers.

* * *

Bouncing Boy was stunned. The HQ turning on them! It was like one of the classic horror movies he had in his collection.

Tyroc was dodging laser blasts, taking only a few hits. Bouncy realized he was needed.

Inflating, he started ricocheting off the walls, drawing fire.

"Follow the bouncing ball," he murmured to himself.

Tyroc saw what Chuck was doing. He took a deep breath and screamed. The lasers shattered into little slivers of glittering metal.

They realized there was still fire coming from the rest of HQ. More battles to fight.

* * *

Violet's ring buzzed. Karate Kid's faced popped up.

"What?" she yelled at it, shrinking further so Condo could scrunch himself up completely under the counter. Brainy had been particularly protective of the lab. There were more than lasers in there.

"Timber Wolf has tackled me, Ultra Boy is shielding _him_, Phantom Girl has to stay intangible or be riddled with _lots_ of holes and Shadow Lass is running down the hall screaming in Talokian. Why?"

"Computer virus! And no, I _cannot_ do anything about it! We're stuck under the counters in here!"

Violet, Condo reflected, was sounding more like Brainy every day. Why did intellectuals all seem to have a certain _tone_ every so often?

"This is ridiculous," Shvaughn said. She shifted and then sprinted for the lab doors; only noticing that they were shut tight when she was halfway across the room.

Shrinking Violet sighed and cut the conversation with Karate Kid. "Can you handle this?" she asked Condo and shrunk down farther before he could reply.

Condo gathered his nerve and ran after Shvaughn. He reached the doors just as she was ducking the fire from a particularly vicious-looking armament. He concentrated and the doors started rusting through.

* * *

Salu slid along the wiring of Legion HQ, trying to remember what she knew of the layout. Sometimes she remembered correctly, and the firing of weapons would lessen by a degree. More often she remembered wrongly and the lights somewhere nearby blew a fuse.

The main processing center would be somewhere. She put a dent in the danger on the way, but the real work would come when she got down business trying to get this virus out of the computer.

She grimaced as another hall light blew a fuse.

* * *

Rust reached the last gleaming part of the door just as Shvaughn decided she'd had enough. She shoved Condo aside, kicked a hole straight through the rusted metal and dragged him through behind her.

Shadow Lass ran into view, shouting something barbaric and fierce sounding as she wreaked destruction. Shvaughn took one look at her and joined in, minus the screaming.

They left Condo looking vaguely baffled as the two woman continued on down the hall. He considered his options for a moment. Finally, he reached into the remains of the door, carefully avoiding the weapons-fire, and caught hold of the door's control wires.

Miles of this stuff had been threaded through the walls of HQ. There was plenty to work with.

* * *

Tinya knew that even with Tasmia out there somewhere leaving ruin in her wake, nothing would ever get accomplished.

She, however, was inside the room that housed not only the largest public terminal of COMPUTO but also its memory banks.

She phased through the floor and floated into the cave-like space. The panels glowed sullenly, and Tinya realized quite suddenly that there was actually not much room in here. But, as far as she knew, computers couldn't do anything without their memory.

* * *

Bouncy rolled like a powerhouse down the hallway, using his momentum to travel up the walls and over the ceiling. Some of the lasers were destroyed by the sheer force of his movement.

Tyroc came behind, shattering whatever defenses were left. They had decimated a whole level now, and had to find some way to get farther along with the transport system down.

* * *

Timber Wolf moved from behind Jo, reasoning that since it was just the two of them and Karate Kid they had better get to work. Adrenaline was already coursing through his body. That could be dangerous, but if he let himself submit to it just the right amount…

He had it. He could feel his muscles getting more powerful. The animal inside him stirred, but he kept it down. The world shifted, almost imperceptibly, and Brin sprang into action. Jo and Val followed right behind.

The common room began to look like someone had thrown grenades around indiscriminately. Various-sized holes were made in the walls with sparking wires hanging out. Sometimes it helped. Sometimes it didn't.

* * *

Shrinking Violet reached the main processing center and immediately went to the heart of COMPUTO. There was only one computer terminal, surrounded by banks of pure processing power. Readouts scrolled across the screen. She watched it for a moment, then started typing furiously, trying to dislodge the virus's code.

It was hard going. The code seemed to work with the system against itself. Like a cancer instead of a virus. The code knew the programming inside and out. It unraveled and re-raveled the firewalls, then convinced the system that there were threats popping up inside the HQ. It was so specific.

Whoever, wherever this code had come from, it knew every nook and cranny in the programming. In some places, it was actually convincing the programming to re-write itself into absolute gibberish.

She glared at the screen and started counter-programming. Maybe she couldn't stop the code, but she could keep it from destroying what was already there.

* * *

Shvaughn ducked behind a corner as more weapons-fire blasted from near the ceiling. Shadow Lass just kept on going.

Shvaughn wondered what had gotten into her. Usually Tasmia was self-controlled, but now she was a berserker. There were stories about Talokians and their fighting, but she'd always thought they were exaggerated.

Well, it they may have been a little bit. She certainly hadn't started conducting odd rituals in the midst of destruction, but it was still terrifying enough. Nothing seemed to stop this woman.

The SciPol officer stuck as little of herself as possible around the corner and started shooting precise shots at the HQ's defenses.

Hallways cleared quickly with the two of them around.

* * *

The wires and cables suddenly stopped rusting. Condo could feel his power reaching and finding nothing. He examined the wires still in his hand, deciding he could move out from behind the remains of the door. Most of the weapons had stopped firing or were sitting around making little whirring noises. One or two were smoking. The remaining wires were mostly of the ancient copper type, installed for who-know-what purpose. Iron- and steel- based wires were much more efficient in moving the power used nowadays.

He thought about what he could do with copper, and began the oxidization process. The still-visible bits of the wiring started to turn a dull green.

* * *

Tinya had phased past the paneling in the memory banks and had started pulling out the various attached cables. She wasn't quite sure what they did, but most looked like they would be important.

There were a few things she couldn't detach, no matter how much she twisted. She tried to tell herself that they weren't as important as the other ones; but knew those were probably the _most_ vital.

* * *

Karate Kid's carefully calculated holes in the wall were starting to show some strange things going on. Half the wires there were rusted through, and a handful more were turning green as he looked at them.

Val remembered Chemical King was in the building. He decided to let the wires be for now and concentrate on the weapons. The one cannon protecting this hallway was trying to sight on something.

He dashed out and rolled as the cannon fired on him. This was one of the times that he was very grateful for the flight ring. It gave him so much more _range_. One kick in the barrel between blasts was all he needed to make the cannon explode and drip to the floor in melted bits of metal.

Next hall.

* * *

Jo knew he knew nothing about computers besides they were useful, he could turn them on, and they needed power to work.

He also knew nothing about electrical engineering or any other sort of power engineering besides it usually relied on wires or cables of some sort.

The wires and the cables were in the walls. The computer needed to be shut down. He could punch holes through walls.

Jo was good at a very direct, uncomplicated sort of logic. He was also good a destroying stuff. The two usually went very well together.

There wasn't usually much wall left after he came through.

* * *

Brin wasn't really concentrating on the danger. His instincts could do that. His conscious needed to focus on itself, remembering where he stored his being.

Images scrolled through his head as he let his subconscious take his body on autopilot.

That was his mother, who had died before he and his father moved to Raul.

That was his father.

That was Saturn Girl, whom he forever owed.

That was Cham, who almost always managed to make people laugh.

That was Triplicate Girl, who knew what it was like to lose yourself.

That was Brainy, who knew about a lot of things, including that.

That was Cosmic Boy, always ready to make sure everything ran smoothly.

That was Karate Kid, who had taught him to focus.

That was Jo, who he had reluctantly come to terms with about Tinya.

And that was Tinya, who would stand between him and the world, defending either.

* * *

Tyroc stopped between destroying the defenses to think about a revelation he'd had.

Bouncy came rolling back. "Troy?"

"Those wires that we found all rusted," he said. "If they aren't working anymore, than what's the generator feeding into?"

They looked at each other for a moment for heading at full speed for the generator.

* * *

Violet blinked as another chunk of programming disappeared. She tried to bring it back, but it was like it had never existed in the computer in the first place. This was disconcerting. Was the code doing something she couldn't monitor on the screens?

She redoubled her effort. The code started slowing down. The programming wasn't being over-written nearly as much anymore.

She let herself have a moment of self-congratulations before starting the sequence that would block out the code from wherever it hadn't already reached.

* * *

No more copper wire ran through the walls. There was a surprising amount left, from what Condo could feel in the darkness. The lighting had all fizzled out long ago, sometime between the first of the copper wiring and the middle bit. Most of the rest seemed to be silver, the newfangled all-purpose conductor of all the latest energy sources.

He started oxidizing again, visualizing the gleaming silver turning black with tarnish.

* * *

Shadow Lass was halfway down another hallway when the foundations of HQ shook and a hole was blasted through the wall.

The berserking Talokian was bombarded with flying chunks of building material. She took a solid hit to the head and was knocked unconscious.

Shvaughn waited a moment to see if there would be any more explosions, then came out from behind her corner and slung Tasmia over her shoulder, moving farther into the building.

* * *

Timber Wolf's subconscious demanded attention as his nerves screamed in pain from the message sent by his ears. The two parts of his brain snapped together and for the first time he noticed the scratches, cuts, and burns he'd accumulated in the fighting. He also noticed for the first time that there was a hole in the floor where he was stepping.

Brin tumbled into the floor below, landing heavily on his back. His head was ringing, and the animal had retreated somewhere inside him.

Jo stood over him, offering a hand.

"What was _that_?"

* * *

Bouncing Boy careened into Tyroc, knocking the already-staggering Legionnaire off his feet.

"Since when have _explosives_ been part of the defense plan?"

"It's pretty _obvious_, at least," Tyroc muttered. "Too messy, though."

"Not nearly as messy as the generator will be."

They pulled themselves together and continued down to the generator.

* * *

Violet realized that she had to do something about the defenses, fast. Lasers were one thing. You could see those, you could destroy them. Mines planted in the walls and the floor were something else entirely.

The code was still losing strength. She had most of the defenses back under control, their programming scrubbed of the virus. If it kept declining at the current rate, the computer would be free of new threats in under ten minutes.

* * *

The rest of the wires weren't worth bothering with, Condo decided. He couldn't make them break down in any way, so they'd have to stay.

The explosions from earlier worried him. Had someone come across something that was more than they could handle?

A tap on his shoulder made him turn. Karate Kid stood there.

"Do you know what happened a few minutes ago?"

He shook his head.

With unspoken consent, they left the lab and went in search of the source of the explosions.

* * *

Ultra Boy turned the corner and almost ran into Shvaughn. He spotted Tasmia hanging over her shoulder and his breath caught.

"Is she going to be okay?"

"I think so. What about Timber Wolf?"

He turned and looked at Brin. He did look horrible.

"I'm fine." Brin said. "What's with the explosions?"

"No idea. This is _your _headquarters."

"Not my design."

"Then why don't we just keep going?"

* * *

Tyroc stared at the door that hid the generator. He considered it a moment.

"Stand back."

Bouncy retreated to the end of hallway, and he himself backed up.

The scream sent metal spikes shooting into the walls.

Through the shattered doorway, the generator was getting dangerously close to overloading. It was going to blow and take the part of the tower above it along.

* * *

Phantom Girl sat down and slowed her breathing. That was it. There were no more cables she could disconnect. No way to stop whatever was happening with the computer, not here.

Another explosion rocked the common room. Tinya phased through the rest of the floor and started searching for mines.

There was one. She laid her discorpreal hand on it as best she could, and solidified it for an instant. The mine went off, and the explosion went through her form. She went in search of more mines.

* * *

Karate Kid looked around the corner cautiously. There were giant shards of metal sticking out of the walls. The air in the hallway crackled with electricity.

Condo looked over his shoulder. He could see Tyroc in the generator room, uttering scream after scream, trying to keep the energy contained by the soundwaves. It was failing.

They both hurried down the hallway.

Bouncy stood just outside the ruined doorway.

"Is there something we can do-"

"No." he told Condo. "It's too dangerous to go in there without some sort of protection."

"Protection?" Ultra Boy asked from behind them, as he walked straight in. "Better stay here, puppy."

Timber Wolf scowled but stayed outside.

"phtmdwhn."

"What?" Shvaughn asked.

"Put me down." Shadow Lass repeated.

"No." Shvaughn and Wolf said at the same time.

* * *

The numbers were moving too slowly. Shrinking Violet willed them to go faster, to stop the madness infesting the HQ. They just kept plodding along.

The code had stopped, its work done. She was just waiting for her counter-code to repair it all.

1 minute, 54 seconds. 1 minute, 52 seconds. 1 minute, 50 seconds…

* * *

Condo looked at the energy. He looked at Tyroc trying to contain it. He looked at Jo standing in it.

"How does the generator make energy?" he asked.

"There's something or other to with reactions and stuff." Bouncing Boy said vaugley. "Like batteries and things."

He kept looking at the energies.

* * *

Phantom Girl solidified her hand on another mine.

Nothing happened.

She tried again.

Again nothing.

There were no more weapons-fire noises.

* * *

Shrinking Violet pumped her fist in the air.

The computer screen read "Reconfiguration Complete".

* * *

Tyroc turned in alarm as Condo walked right past him toward the generator.

"Hey, Condo, that's-"

Chemical placed his hands right on the generator. The energies wavered and began to sink into his body.

The Legionnaire's legs were shaking. He started to fall.

The generator finally blew.

* * *

Lightning Lad was irritated, but had managed to calm down from the fierce anger that had followed the last horribly failed dual meeting with Terror Firma and the Workforce.

He pressed the button to open the hangar doors.

The ship shuddered and rocked, throwing everyone on board sideways.

"What was _that_?" Cham asked.

"The hangars aren't open." Dream Girl said. "Garth-"

"I pressed the button."

"Press it again."

The doors still stood stubbornly closed.

"Legionnaires, this is Saturn Girl hailing Headquarters," the leader said, sending the transmission to the open announcement system. "Do you hear me?"

There was no response.

"Legionnaires?"

The ship hovered indecisively over the tower.

* * *

Triplicate Girl maneuvered her way around the chunks of wall and ceiling littering the hallway.

"Hey!" she called. "Anyone hear me?"

There was a shifting noise above her, and something creaked.

Dust settled onto her shoulders and hair.

She looked up to see the falling bit of ceiling.

* * *

"Condo!" Lyle stuck his head around the door of the laboratory. "Condo?"

He saw the ruins of the state-of-the-art equipment.

"Violet?" he asked dubiously. "You in here?"

She grew into sight as she flew toward him.

"Vi, what happened?" he asked urgently. "Did someone-"

"Someone or something got a virus into COMPUTO. It activated the HQ's self-defense systems. I managed to get rid of the virus, but I don't know where anyone else is-"

Lyle ran out of the room, calling for his boyfriend.

* * *

Phantom Girl scared Sun Boy, who was nervously picking his way through the building.

"Don't _do_ that," he snapped.

"I wasn't _trying_ to be rude." she retorted.

Matter-Eater Lad was crunching nonchalantly on select pieces of rubble. "What happened here?"

"COMPUTO attacked us. We've been fighting the defense system all day."

"Wait, _what_?"

* * *

Trips had dropped to the ground, hands over her head; resigning herself to being crushed in a few seconds.

The impact never came.

"Chuck!" she exclaimed as she looked up at the inflated ball keeping the debris off her.

"Move, Lu!"

She rolled out of the way and he let the ceiling chunk fall.

"Chuck, what-"

"Later. Condo needs a doctor, Lu."

* * *

Lyle skidded around the corner and saw Condo lying on the floor in the ruins of the generator.

"Condo!" he yelled.

Tyroc was bent over him, checking his vitals. Lyle ran over.

"How is he?"

"Well, alive; but I don't know about the rest-"

"Move."

Triplicate Girl pushed both of them aside. She looked at Jo, unconscious on the floor.

"Wake him up. We need to move Condo."

* * *

Element Lad passed Lyle sitting in the hallway and stopped. He sat next to the scientist.

Lyle didn't look at him.

"What did Condo do?" Jan asked.

"He internalized the chemical reaction that powers the generator so there wouldn't be so bad an explosion."

"Will he be alright?"

"Trips says yes. But he looks horrible."

Cos walked by, inspecting the ruined walls. The other two Legionnaires watched him.

"When will the repairs start?" the former leader asked.

Lyle looked blankly at him. "You know how to fix this stuff?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"**Microscopic Flaws"**

* * *

Lyle and Salu were fixing Legion Headquarters using the tried-and-true method of Science Everywhere:

Stick stuff together and see what happens.

Salu twisted two wires back together and flipped a switch.

"NOW?" she yelled.

"_Aggh_!" Lyle's scream managed to carry quite a way. "_NO,_ NOT THAT ONE!"

* * *

Colossal Boy wandered through the hallways, offering help.

No one wanted to take it.

"Your hands are too big to try and do anything delicate, Gim," Lyle told him in between sucking on his fingers to try and relieve the sting from yet another unanticipated electric shock.

"Can you thread wires through .05 inch radius holes?" Cos asked him; knowing the answer would be no.

"We don't need any more help destroying things, Colossal Boy." Element Lad said apologetically as he vaporized another section of almost-decimated wall. "And Matter-Eater Lad and Star Boy already cleaned up most of the debris."

"I don't think you can be much help here," Bouncy was supervising the rebuilding team by merit of his architectural training.

* * *

Cham was walking by the common room when he spotted Gim perched on the couch, looking morose.

"Have you got anything to do?"

"No," the giant sighed. "No one seems to want -or need- my help."

"When was the last time you saw Yera?"

"Uhm," he thought of the Durlan actress he'd met on the off-duty day Cos had ordered before all this started. "Ten months ago?"

"High time you went on another date, then, don't you think?"

* * *

"-so we're _not_ doing opera again. _I _can't sing worth anything, and _she_ can, so I'll just stick to plays."

Gim chuckled. "I missed seeing you, Yera. It's been way to long since I've had any free time."

"Being valiant takes a lot of work, doesn't it?"

"Not nearly as much as your plays seem to."

"It's not just plays anymore, big guy. I've got a movie deal too."

"No way!"

"Absolutely. The director came to one of my plays, scouting for actors, and asked the stage manager for directions to my dressing room afterwards. He was absolutely _shocked_ when he walked in and saw me unshifted. I had to switch my looks to make him believe it was really me."

He looked at her orange skin and the way her black hair fell around her pointed ears. "Couldn't he tell from the beautiful woman in front of him?"

"Stop teasing me," she smiled.

"I'm not," he told her with conviction. "It's the truth."

"So, anyway, now I'm Yera Trairith, movie actress."

"Do you know the part yet?"

"It's set late 21st Century Earth. I play the lead role, Tisha Ganshee."

"May I see?"

She looked around slyly. This was one of her regular restaurants, but no one was used to seeing her shift. But they weren't looking.

Gim looked at the well-built, dreadlocked African woman in front of him. "I like it."

* * *

He was walking Yera back to her apartment when a girl stopped him.

"'Scuse me," she said in a heavily accented voice. "Where's Kodlach Street?"

Yera started giving her directions as he thought. He knew that accent. Where…?

"Hey," he said as the girl turned away. She looked at him.

"Are you from Khlora?" he asked in Yiddish.

"No way," she said in the same language. "_You're_ Colossal Boy?"

"I didn't think anyone else from the City could shrink like I do-well, no one but my family."

"I found out a couple years after you left. Been saving money ever since."

He noticed Yera's confused look and switched back into Interlac. "I'm Gim Allon," he told her holding out his hand.

"I'm Lali Muldrow."

* * *

"Is Gim here?"

Shvaughn spun quickly. "Who-"

"Shvaughn, it's alright." Element Lad put a hand on her shoulder. "That's Yera. She and Colossal Boy are dating."

He turned to the Durlan. "No; he's not here. He and Lali Muldrow went out together awhile ago."

"Went _out_?"

"He's showing her the city. She still doesn't know her way around."

* * *

It seemed as if Gim hadn't stopped talking about Lali ever since he'd met her, weeks ago.

"-said she has an older brother and a little sister. Her mom's the deputy mayor and didn't want her to leave the city at all-"

"That sounds a bit like my parents." Yera smiled at the thought; mostly to hide her boredom. "They didn't want me to leave but they knew how much I wanted to act."

"It's great having someone around like me, Yera. No one in Big City ever really got why I cared about the little people."

"Oh, so I'm a little person?" she asked, looking slightly offended.

"Nonono- not like little unimportant, just little in comparison."

"Hm."

* * *

Yera saw Lali wandering around when she was walking back to her apartment from a rehearsal.

"Lali!" she called.

The other girl turned. "Oh! You're Gim's girlfriend!"

"Yera."

"Yeah, that's it."

"Have you managed to get yourself oriented yet?"

"Oriented?"

"Element Lad told me that you were having a hard time finding your way around. That was why Gim was out with you."

"Oh! Oh yeah, it's much easier now! It's great that he's decided to spend so much time with me. I couldn't have done it without him!"

Lali was fairly glowing with happiness.

"Did you have a good time with him?"

"Yeah! We talked about our families and stuff. You know my brother is studying to become a rabbi? Mom's so proud of him!"

"What are you planning to _do_ here, anyway?"

"Well, I thought that I might, just, y'know, get used to stuff, and- and maybe once everything settles out, I _might_, I thought-"

A taxi pulled up and dropped someone off.

"Oh; hey!" Lali put her hand on the door. "Can I get in?"

"So long as you pay afterwards."

"Great! Thanks!" she climbed in and shut the door. "See you later, Yera!"

The actress was left standing on the side of the road, watching the taxi pull into traffic and disappear around a corner.

She had a feeling that Lali wasn't ever going to finish answering her question.

* * *

Cham was hanging around the mostly-fixed HQ when he spotted Yera walking across the plaza. He went down to the door to greet her.

"He's not here, if you're looking for him."

She sighed. "Is he out with Lali again?"

"Nope. Saturn Girl put him on an extended space patrol. Terror Firma hasn't acted up lately and he and Violet and Sun Boy are supposed to go and see if they can figure out why."

"Gim is on a reconnaissance mission?"

"He and Sun Boy are the distraction."

"Ah."

Cham looked at her quizzically. "Yera, is something wrong?"

"Can I come in?"

* * *

Sun Boy was trying to see the whole room without sticking his head in the door.

"She's on the other side of the ship, Dirk." Colossal Boy said. "Doing something in the lab."

"All those science types ever _do_ is 'something in the lab'."

"You don't have to sound so _grumpy_ about it. If you want to come in, come in."

Dirk stood in front of his friend. "My dad was like that, always in the lab. And you're the one who sounds like he's annoyed."

"I'm not annoyed."

"Are you sure you don't still like Violet?"

"What?" Gim's eyes went wide. "I haven't had a crush on Violet since I met Yera! You know that!"

"And I suppose you haven't liked her since you met Lali?"

"No!"

Sun Boy grabbed a chair and sat across from him. "You give a good impression of it."

"What do you mean?"

* * *

Cham showed Yera into his apartments.

She shut the door.

"Would you mind much if I dropped this?" she asked in Durlan.

"Not at all," he said, also switching to Durlan. "I know it's hard to keep up a shape, but I guess I'm just used to it by now."

She sat down in a chair, shifting back into her normal state.

"I wish I could just stay like this the whole time," she said wistfully. "It's so much easier."

"Most people still have a problem with us even when we look more like them," Cham pointed out. "Showing up green and tentacle-ly probably wouldn't help."

"Probably not." Durlans couldn't smile in their natural state, but he could hear it in her voice.

"So, what's up?"

"I don't know what do about Gim, Reep."

"He has been acting a bit like a jerk lately, hasn't he?"

"He and Lali seem to be the only people who haven't noticed yet."

* * *

"You keep taking Lali places, and don't even think about how Yera feels about that."

"But we're both from Big City!" Colossal Boy protested. Sun Boy looked unmoved. "There's just the two of us out here in the little world. It's just like with her and Cham, they're the only two Durlans offworld besides Mr. Brande. I don't get mad about _that_."

"You're missing the point, Gim. You don't _do_ that sort of thing."

"Talk to other girls when I'm dating?"

"Take another girl out on what _could've_ been a couple dates and then ignore the girl you're _really _dating!"

"And I suppose you know _all about_ women, Dirk."

"I have frequent dates."

"All with different people!"

"Every single one of them has known it's a temporary thing! You can't go around just telling girls that you like them and then go off with someone else! It just causes problems!"

Gim had a sour look on his face. This was something they had never agreed on.

* * *

"She walks in on the end of a date, and then whenever I try and meet up with him, he's with _her _instead!" Yera fumed.

"He seems pretty oblivious about all this." Cham said.

"Oh, he is! Or he's doing it on purpose."

"Purpose?" he sat up straighter. "I don't think he'd do that."

"Reep, you live a little world all your own, here in the Legion. I've had a couple boyfriends before. They were all Durlan. There were a few people I've gone on dates with here, but they eventually back out. They don't want a 'dirty shapeshifting Durlan' for a girlfriend. The only reason most of them asked me is because they saw me first in a human form."

He considered that for a moment. "If we do have a world all our own in the Legion, then Colossal Boy's in it too. He's just not like that; to cheat on someone."

Yera scowled at him. "Maybe, but I've talked to Lali since then. She was _very_ evasive about my questions as to what she's planning on doing. And then there's the fact that she has the _exact same power_ as Gim does, then she shows up _just_ as he's about to finish something else."

"No such thing as a convenient coincidence, right?"

"Exactly. It all seems so _staged_."

"She might try and get him to go out with her, but he wouldn't go for that without breaking it off with you first."

"You really think so?"

Cham nodded.

Yera got up and headed for the door. "Thanks for the talk, Reep."

"No problem."

* * *

Yera was about to walk out the door into the plaza when she saw Lali coming toward the building. She ducked behind a corner and did some quick thinking. She wanted her questions answered.

It was Shrinking Violet, dressed in civilian clothes, who walked out the door.

"Uh… it's Lali, right?" Yera tried to sound nervous.

"Yeah. And you're Shrinking Violet?"

"Uh-huh. Lali…"

"What?" the giant looked at her sharply.

"C-can I talk to you?"

"Of course! Where-"

"Let's just walk." Yera said, pulling the other young woman away from Legion HQ.

* * *

"So I should have just talked to Yera about how she felt about me being friendly with Lali?"

"Exactly." Sun Boy said. "That's all."

"Do you think she's mad at me?" Gim asked.

"Maybe. If nothing else, though, she's probably really tired of hearing about Lali. I know the rest of the Legion is."

* * *

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Lali asked, looking at Yera/Violet.

"You and Gim are from the same place, right?"

"Yeah…"

"And you've been talking a lot, so I bet you know him pretty well."

"I'm not really sure. I do know I'd _love_ to get to know him better."

Yera reminded herself that being angered by that statement wouldn't be in character.

"I want to know more about him."

"Why?" Lali stopped walking. "I'm not going to go around telling other people personal information to feed gossipmongers."

"No no no! It's not that!" Yera made herself blush. "It's- uh-"

" Come on, spit it out."

"I like him." she said quietly.

"_Really_."

Yera put on an embarrassed face and ducked her head. "I- ah, it's, well-"

"You haven't told him, have you?"

"No."

"Well," Lali said. "What would you like to know first?"

* * *

Colossal Boy decided he needed a second opinion.

Taking advice about girls from Sun Boy was all well and good, but his reputation as a womanizer was too well-earned for him to really trust what Dirk said.

Not that the only other person on board had a very good track record when it came to relationships.

"Shrinking Violet?" he asked, poking his head into the lab.

"What?" she snapped; then took a good look at who it actually was. "Oh. I thought you were Sun Boy."

"I was just talking to him, actually."

"_Really?_"

"He's not that much of a horrible person, you know." The tone in her voice made him feel like he had to stand up for Dirk somehow. "He's just a huge jerk sometimes."

"Cos is a huge jerk sometimes, too. Sun Boy enjoys antagonizing people every so often. Like a less-severe case of Nemesis Kid."

Gim decided this was not a good time to point out that she acted the same way towards Lyle; and that Brainy could give every Legionnaire a run for their money when it came to getting on people's nerves.

"There are times I wonder if the 'nemesis' part has more to do with his personality than with his powers." That was neutral enough, and probably true. "It's easy to see someone actually calling him that."

"I think you're right. What do you want?"

"Dirk was saying that I've been a clueless jerk around Yera lately."

"He's right. And just after you managed to pack away the _last_ instance of stupidity."

"You aren't in a very good mood right now, are you?"

"_Absolutely _not."

"You know you fit the role of 'occasionally- insufferable genius' very nicely?"

"Are you going to say anything worthwhile or are you going to stand there adding unwanted commentary? I have _things_ to do."

"You're saying more than me. Do you think Yera is likely to be mad at me for ignoring her like that?"

"Maybe. Probably not. I don't know her that well. What do you think?"

"I'm not sure. I've only got Dirk's word to go on, and you know what _his_ experience is like."

* * *

"I don't really know about that." Lali admitted to Yera, still disguised as Violet. "He hasn't said."

"Just when did you decide to come to the 'outside world', anyway?"

"Oh, Gim inspired me. I was at a total loss as to what to do with the powers I had. Always different, you know. Ever since I was little."

"This must be great for you, then."

"Yeah- hey. I gotta go."

"Really?" Yera hadn't ever seen Violet look monumentally disappointed, but she managed a good impression.

"Well, uh, you could, maybe, come along?"

"That would be _great_."

"I've still got some boxes that could use unpacking, so it's not like you're intruding or anything..."

It would be great. She was being _very_ evasive again.

'_No such thing as a convenient coincidence, right?'_

* * *

Yera-as-Violet dumped the leftover packing onto the floor.

"Thanks for your help, Violet," Lali said.

There was a loud, impatient knock at the door.

"Who-" Lali began, and then slapped her forehead. "Oh, I forgot to pay the rent! The landlady said she wasn't going to take late payments after last time!"

The knocking came again.

"Just a minute!" she called and scrambled for a small box half-hidden under the packing material and pulled out her wallet.

"I'm _sorry_, Violet! I'll try not to take long-"

"Take as long as you need."

The shrunken giantess ran for the door. Yera heard it open, and an irate voice started off on a spiel before the doorjamb clicked shut again.

Yera looked at the small box lying open on the floor. A glinting bit of medal wrapped in tissue paper caught her eye. She picked it up.

It was a beautifully-rendered platinum locket. A small jewel set in the middle sparkled briefly. She pulled at the catch. It stuck.

She stuck her thumb against the hinge, angling the catch away from her, and pulled again. A small hologram of a man popped out.

"Lali?" he asked, annoyed. "Where have you been? You were supposed to report back with your intelligence days ago! Turn this thing around!"

Yera made a split-second decision and shifted into Lali. She turned the locket around.

"Yeah?"

"What's with you? You better have good information on the Legion! Lemnos is _not_ going to be happy with this delay."

Yera wracked her brain for something inconsequential but seemingly significant. "Colossal Boy and Sun Boy are on a mission to track down Terror Firma."

"Really? Well, I'll have to tell our team about that. What-"

Yera heard the door open again. "I have someone here!" she hissed.

"Micro Lass, you have _really_ got to work on you-"

She shut the locket and stuck it in her pocket, shifting back to Violet as she placed the tissue paper back in the box.

"I hate collection day," Lali sighed.

* * *

Yera pushed past the door into Legion Headquarters just as an alarm went off.

Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy, and Invisible Kid came rushing in. Lyle started messing with a control panel on the wall as Cos tried to yell over the alarms.

"WE JUST GOT THE POWER GOING TO ALL SYSTEMS AGAIN! YOU DON'T HAPPEN TO HAVE A LIVE COMMUNICATOR ON YOU, DO YOU?"

She winced as Lyle cut the alarm and Cos didn't manage to stop shouting right away.

"Actually, that's what I came to talk to you about."

* * *

The Legion cruiser had landed Shrinking Violet was just about to comm Lyle and tell him to 'flip the switch already, it was just Yera'; when Gim rushed past her and the alarm shut off.

"You'll make a better impression if you don't run!" Sun Boy called after him.

Violet sighed and followed Colossal Boy.

* * *

All the Legionnaires at Headquarters were gathered around COMPUTO's main terminal in the common area.

Yera watched nervously as her news sunk in.

"You're absolutely sure that that is what you said to the man when you opened the locket?" Saturn Girl asked.

"I'm sure. Good memorization makes an actress's job much easier."

"Lali was using me?" Gim asked, sounding more like he was trying to wrap his head around the situation than that he was confused.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"No, I'm sorry," he said. "I was ignoring you in favor of Lali. Who is apparently a two-faced scumbag."

"It seems to me that she's more like an ineffectual spy," Lyle put in. "I don't think she's had any serious training. It seems whoever this guy is; he probably just picked whoever she could get."

"So, who _was_ this guy?" Bouncing Boy asked.

"I don't know. All I know is that when I mentioned Terror Firma, he said 'our team'."

"Could it be the Workforce?" Lightning Lad asked. "Imra told them to get lost, but they're nothing if not persistent."

"We haven't heard of them having a 'Micro Lass' on their team, but we didn't know about Spy, either," Imra pointed out.

"We could just open the locket and see who pops up," Salu said. "Worst case scenario, we have no idea who he is."

"Voting time," Saturn Girl said. "All in favor of Violet's suggestion?"

Most of the team raised their hands. She counted.

"We open the locket then."

"Incoming," Dream Girl announced.

* * *

Lali burst through the door. "Violet, when you were helping me unpack, did you see-"

She stopped midsentence, clearly confused by the gathering.

Violet was even more confused. "When I was helping you unpack _what_?"

"Earlier today, you were-"

"In space."

"You were at my apartment…"

"Um, Shrinking Violet," Yera put in. "That was me. I was impersonating you."

"You were _impersonating _me?" Violet asked, aghast.

"I was talking to _you_?" Lali looked askance at Yera.

"Can we just open the thing and get this over with?" Timber Wolf asked blearily. "I got dragged out of bed for this, and I'd _really_ like to go back."

He picked up the locket and yanked it open. The man's face appeared again.

"_Elysion!_ Get me _out_ of here!" Lali screamed.

Nemesis Kid hurled toward her. "You're working for Terror Firma! Elysion was the guy who broke my arm!"

Colossal Boy grew until his hair brushed the ceiling. He reached for Lali menacingly.

"_No one messes with my friends_."

Lali grew too. She swatted his hand away and started backing toward the door.

"But you're all _wrong_! You're _protecting_ the UP when they're the ones who-"

Blok grabbed her ankle and tripped her up. Her head caved in the wall above the door.

"I have heard that before," he said calmly. "I too knew people who blamed the UP for their troubles, and it caused no end of difficulty."

Lali shook herself free and shrunk just enough to fit through the ruined doorframe. Ultra Boy and Lighting Lad both dashed after her and got tangled up trying to get out of the room at the same time.

A familiar flash of light shone from beyond them for a moment, and Saturn Girl knew Elysion had ordered Terror Firma's teleporter to come pick Lali up.

"Hey, Imra," Sun Boy said.

"What?"

"We know what Terror Firma was up to now."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 9 **

"**Power"**

* * *

Wildfire pounded the cruiser's console in frustration.

"Again!" he shouted. "Again, Terror Firma attacks and the Workforce messes it all up! How much longer are we going to take this?"

"Until we finish the job," Sun Boy said.

"We had two different mission teams this time, Dirk!" Wildfire spun toward him. "They just keep getting better!"

"Like that says anything about the Workforce." Phantom Girl rolled her eyes.

"But we send out more people to counter these guys and we just get beat _worse_." Cham was sitting dejectedly off to the side. "What are we missing?"

"Plans?" Chemical King suggested quietly. "We get so little notice about attacks that whoever's convenient gets sent to deal with it."

"It workegdt weghll enough wigth Imperiex." Nemesis Kid was holding a broken nose. Triplicate Girl poked him.

"No talking while I'm working on you. And everyone was on standby then. We were spread out enough that most of the attacks were near enough to _someone _who could be useful that we were always ahead."

"By _that much_." Lightning Lad demonstrated with his thumb and forefinger almost touching. "Too many close scrapes."

He glanced at Saturn Girl, who ignored him. "The problem with Terror Firma is that there are only certain people who can go up against them without getting crushed. And the Workforce just adds too much uncertainty to do much planning."

"So pound them all," Ultra Boy said.

"To dust," Shadow Lass added.

"I khun goo up ageenst ayngybudty." Nemesis Kid sounded offended, but it was hard to tell.

"Val beats you," Projectra said calmly.

"Karate Kid beats everybody," Phantom Girl pointed out.

"We don't have a strike force, we have Karate Kid," Matter-Eater Lad intoned sagely from near the door. "Karate Kid can divide by zero."

"Lightning can strike twice, but Karate Kid never has too," Bouncing Boy joined in. "Karate Kid can stop a fish by drowning it. Karate Kid-"

"Anyone can drown a fish, Chuck. That doesn't count," Invisible Kid said. "Karate Kid stared at the sun and the sun went blind."

"_What_ are you talking about?" Tyroc stared at them in confusion.

"I do _not_ have to hit things more than once to stop them." Garth huffed.

"He wasn't talking about _you_, Sparky," Trips sighed. "The universe doesn't revolve around _you_."

Matter-Eater Lad saw his opening. "The universe revolves around-"

"-THE BATMAN!" Lyle interrupted, striking a pose.

The interrupted Legionnaire just looked at him. "No."

"WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP!"

* * *

Gas Girl flopped onto a couch. "I think we did better this time!"

"I think we're getting worse as we go on," Calorie Queen retorted.

Gas Girl looked hurt. "But we were in battle longer!"

"There were more Legionnaires this time, Tal," Konk said, holding her head in her hands.

Atmos noticed what she was doing. "Your hard head not keeping you stuck fantasyland anymore, Konk?"

"I am not _stupid_ because I play a game a millennium old, _Marak_," she hissed back.

"Who cares about _coughball_, anyway?"

"_I_ care about _softball_."

Sludge oozed into the room. "How'd it go?"

Calorie Queen gave him a look. "How does it ever go?"

"Badly?" he suggested.

Insect Queen stopped being a fly on the wall and joined in. "You think?"

"OH, EWW!" Life Lass came in the door, shaking goop off her boots. Spy sidled in behind her. "Seriously, Sludge, carry a mop with you, or something."

"Don't shake it on _me_, Somi!" Gas Girl partially sublimated. The muck fell onto the couch instead.

"I _thought_ the rest of you were back." A blonde girl in red and black looked at the mess on the floor and stayed outside the room. The boy following behind her just kept walking. The sticky mud slid off him like water.

Life Lass sighed enviously. "Reactive evolution is so _handy_ to have, Evolvo. Mind trading?"

"I like my power," the boy said. "Somi, you need to learn to think creatively. You could have moved all the mud out of the way with your powers."

"Really?" she looked thunderstruck. "I hadn't thought of that."

"Mind moving it so I can talk about _my_ part of the mission?" the blonde girl called.

"Sure, Mentalla. Give me a min-"

A small fireball boiled through the door. Atmos jumped back. Inferno came walking across the hardened mud and headed for her customary seat on the couch. She eyed the muck coating the cushion and sat on the floor instead.

"Hey, you know, Inferno could probably flame Sludge over here and solve our dirt problem…" Insect Queen mused out loud.

"My dad is the vice-chancellor of Antares!" Sludge threatened.

"We don't_ care_ about your crummy father, Sludge." Atmos said. "Antares is one of the tiniest most insignificant little backwater-"

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?"

* * *

"Whoa, seriously," Garth stared in astonishment at Cosmic Boy. "You don't have to shout."

"Of _course_ I do! No one is taking this _seriously_!"

"_Some_ of us have an inability to be serious," Violet said sourly, shooting a look at Lyle.

"We are _losing ground_ against these terrorists _every day_!" Cos spun on the rest of them. "How can you all stand there and _joke_?"

"We lost again. We know," Triplicate Girl said soothingly. "We'll have another chance, Rokk."

"Another chance is not the _point_! We are _not_ fighting Imperiex and his army of robots anymore! We are _not_ overstretched, outnumbered, and outpowered this time! We should not be _losing_! "

Lyle started talking. "I think overall-"

"Terror Firma shows up, _decimates_ Orando's capital, and then they all manage to escape and come back time and time again! Why are we not _beating_ them? We have been doing this for just over _eight years_ now! This is the _first_ time any of these people have been seen in the _entire_ galaxy, and they can outfight us from the start! Where are they from that we haven't heard of them?"

Cham looked a bit intimidated. "I really think you should calm dow-"

"They couldn't _possibly_ have been operating unnoticed for so long. Someone would have noticed and reported destruction on their scale before this!"

"There are some places remote enough," Projectra said. "The Rimworlds-"

"There are no public records of these people! No birth records, no educational registrations, no _possible_ family members. No former arrest records, no awards received, no name mentions on the interweb. _Nothing_!"

"Bgtzl is another dimension," Tinya pointed out.

"And they just drop off the face of galaxy after they're done! No one knows where they went, what they do while they're there, and then they show up five sectors away! No one is transporting them, we've never seen their ship, and that teleporting guy is there _every time_!"

"Dawnstar already said she can't track the method that guy uses," Sun Boy butted in. "Just get over it, okay?"

"I will _not_ 'get over it'!" Rokk was yelling even louder now. "We have failed too many _times_! _I_ have failed too many times!"

"_You_ have failed too many times?" Saturn Girl asked.

* * *

"_You _are _supposed _to be debriefing." Duplicate Boy strode into the room. "Stop fooling around and get to business!"

"We weren't fooling around, Ord," Mentalla said. "We're trying to figure out how we can get Sludge's stuff to stop mucking everything up."

"You were _fooling around_," he growled. "You have a job, you do it, _then_ you worry about everything else!"

"Control freak."

"_What was that?_"

"I said," Konk continued. "Control freak. You've been driving us constantly to do anything that could put us ahead of the Legion. I joined this team to be a _hero_, not to try and one-up the greatest peacekeeping force of our time."

"_I _think," he said icily. "That you are missing an important point here. We were formed to replace the Legion. They aren't the 'greatest peacekeeping force' anymore. They caused the destruction of more than half the galaxy-"

"And then they _fixed_ it," Mentalla butted in. "Which is more than any of us can say. We just follow the Legion around and jump into their battles, then disappear just as the going gets rough! That's _not _heroic behavior! It isn't even _polite_!"

"We're not_ supposed_ to be heroes if being a hero doesn't get the job done!" Duplicate Boy exploded. "We have a _duty _to keep the threats against the United Planets at whatever cost necessary!"

"The only reason we're not the biggest joke in the galaxy right now is because the UP and Mr. McCauley are sponsoring us!" Insect Queen objected. "I agree with Delya. We don't even finish the job we set out to do, and we've set out to do it with negotiable morals. That's not the way it's supposed to work."

"Plenty of things don't work the way they're supposed to," Atmos sneered. "Get used to it."

"Stop obsessing over Dream Girl and get your butt off the team."

"People make jokes about the Subs, but we're _worse_ than them," Life Lass said. "We can't work together, we don't know what we're doing, and half of us are here for some other reason besides working _for_ people."

Inferno was characteristically silent.

"My dad says the driving force behind everything is politics," Sludge declared.

"I need the money," Spy appeared from nowhere.

"And then there's Atmos's fixation and Ord's desire to have control over things," Gas Girl pointed out helpfully.

"Shut up about me," Atmos said resentfully.

"It's true. You're crazy," Calorie Queen was trying to resolve the situation. "Xanthuans are crazy. That's just how it is. Now let's move on to-"

"I'm from Xanthu and _I'm_ not crazy," Insect Queen objected. "And if anyone's going to talk about _weird_, Bismoll wins."

"I _don't_ think that we should be discussing this…" Evolvo said carefully.

Atmos snorted. "Oh please, Antares-"

"Hey!"

"I thought we were going to debrief," Mentalla said. "So why-"

"Just how is _Bismoll_ supposed to be weird?" Calorie Queen asked testily.

"You run your government like a lottery."

"There's no one on Bismoll who's _insane_ enough to voluntarily take the positions."

"Will you stop _implying_ things?"

Mentalla moved between the two combatants. "Hey, look, if you two won't calm down on your own, I'm going to have to calm you down myse-"

"There is _no_ way you're messing with anyone's head," Duplicate Boy said forcefully.

"I _wasn't_ going to mess with anyone's head! I was going to-"

"Please. You were going to turn on those sneaky powers of yours and make those two-"

"It's _Spy's_ powers that are sneaky! _My _powers are entirely straightforward!"

* * *

"Yes, _I've_ failed too many times," Cosmic Boy said bitterly. "Do you realize how many _failures_ I've caused with bad judgment?"

"Rokk-" Imra began, starting toward him.

"The Brainiac Crisis is just the latest failure. Remember all those times we fought Imperiex? And the first few days after he appeared? When the Legion of Supervillians destroyed HQ and most of the surrounding city? What do you call _that_?"

"Unprecedented circumstances," Shvaughn spoke up.

His voice got louder. "That's only the last _year_. _Then_ there's the plot the Fatal Five and The Legion of Supervillians worked out together. Lyle was almost _killed _before we caught them again! They managed to get themselves _all the way_ into the Outpost and he was the only one in the Legion was even _there_!"

"We managed perfectly well," Condo said in his characteristically soft-spoken way.

"Before _that_ was Ferro Lad and the Suneater. We _all_ know how well _that_ turned out."

"Uh, _I_ was in charge for the Suneater," Bouncy pointed out.

Cos was clearly not listening to any of them. "I couldn't even manage _storm control_; and spent the whole time _arguing _with people!"

"That's not _new_. It never has been," Garth said, coming up behind him. "Really-"

"Before that it was even _worse_! There was the White Triangle and Andromeda and- and _Trom_."

Imra tried approaching him again. "Everyone feels horrible about Trom, Rokk."

He shrugged her hand off violently. "_It was entire planet dead_! That whole first _year and a half_ was a _disaster_! We formed to _help _people and then we_ lost_ and entire planet to a _single_ genocidal maniac! We had enough power by that time to stop it and _I just messed it up_. You would _think_ I would have _learned_ something after that!"

"We were just starting out. We made mistakes." Triplicate Girl helped Nemesis Kid off the counter, his nose realigned and cleared out. "Some were worse than others."

"We were all new to it." Saturn Girl wasn't giving up. "When you and Garth and I were trying to figure out who was trying to kill Mr. Brande we did a things we wouldn't do today because we learned better."

Lightning Lad had the same idea. "Yeah, like on the ship-"

Rokk spun on them. "You never asked _why_, did you?"

"Why _what_?" Garth looked at him in confusion.

"None of you ever asked why I was on that ship!"

Now Garth was even more confused. "I didn't have to. You said you were looking for work-"

"_You never asked why!_"

* * *

Nearly everyone in the Workforce was fighting now. Atmos and Duplicate Boy were hurling insults indiscriminately. The rest of the team was split along clearly defined lines: there were the Lallorites, the Xanthese, and Everyone Else.

Calorie Queen was in full swing.

"Stuck-up hypocritical egomaniac!"

"Interfering antagonistic insubordinator!" Duplicate Boy screamed right back.

"Why are you even in _charge_ here?"

"I'm the only one who showed any _initiative_! The _rest _of you were all scouted!"

"_Inferno_ wasn't scouted."

"Just _showing up_ one day doesn't _count_."

"I want to know what sort of a team has obsessed stalkers on it." Insect Queen joined the fray.

"I am not an obsessed stalker!" Atmos said hotly. "And don't try and say that I'm delu- wait. Stalk_ers_?"

"Spy is _really_ good at finding stuff." Insect Queen smiled. "Duplicate Boy should know."

"What do you mean?" the leader asked, his voice dangerously calm.

"_You're_ the one with files of stuff on Shrinking Violet. Really, it's worse than Atmos's prattling about Dream Girl."

He stared at her, speechless with rage.

"Who's crazy _now_?"

* * *

"Okay, okay; fine." Garth held up his hands in defense. "Why were you looking for work?"

Rokk sat down heavily and folded his hands. He stared at them for a second, and then began to speak. His voice was still bitter.

"Because I blew my only chance at my family having a decent life. You think you had it bad, Garth. You've never lived in poverty. You spend most of the day not seeing your parents, who bend over backwards to try and be around when you're awake. You take part-time jobs whenever and wherever you can get them so you can buy clothes that aren't in tatters and shoes that really fit. You work as hard as you can so you can get ahead in any little way so there's a bit more insurance against homelessness when taxes come due. The only way to get out is to get a scholarship."

"Wait- you're saying that was your _life_?" Sun Boy asked incredulously. "That…"

"I had a scholarship lined up. Magnoball. If I could win the championship finals for my team, I'd get a two-thirds paid tuition. I pulled a muscle the day before in a semi-final game. I_ couldn't_ sit the final out. So I played one period. The muscle hurt more but I didn't feel horrible, so I went out again. Ten minutes into the second period, my leg collapsed and I couldn't stand again. I had to be _carried_ off the field and another player won the game. She got the scholarship."

"That's a long time to be hung up on a lost game-"

"It's not the game. It was lying in the hospital knowing my parents had to pay for this and that I hadn't taken a job in months to keep myself in shape properly and it didn't matter anymore. It was remembering the extra hours my brother had taken out of studying to make up for the income loss, and then remembering how his grades dropped when it was _so important_ that he keep them up…"

"That's why you've never gone anywhere with us." Triplicate Girl said into the silence. "You were sending all your money home."

"I get fed and clothed here. I have a place to sleep each night, and if for some reason it isn't there, I don't have to pay for someplace else. I don't need the money."

He was quiet for a minute.

"No one dies in civilization anymore from starvation or freezing to death, but that doesn't mean you can't get close. I haven't been home since I left, but I'm sure they're doing better now."

* * *

"You- you were _spying _on me!" Duplicate Boy rounded on Spy.

"I was hired to spy."

"Not on us! This is our side!"

"_'Our side'? _Where I am ordered to use my skills to try and squeeze information out of honorable people who have protected us since the time we can truly remember paying attention? No. This is not my side. You can tell Mr. McCauley he no longer needs to pay me."

Spy paused as he stepped out the door, then turned.

"It should make him happy."

Mentalla looked after him thoughtfully; then stood up.

"I'm going too."

"Mind a partner?" Calorie Queen rose too.

"Where- where are you _going_?" Duplicate Boy demanded.

"Somewhere not here," Kid Quake said.

"Yeah," agreed Sludge.

Duplicate Boy glared after them in outraged silence.

"Well," he said evenly after they had left. "How did everyone's missions go?"

"This isn't over yet," Insect Queen said. "I'm not staying on a team that treats me the way you've been. _I'm_ going back to Xanthu."

"Oh, _please_, Lonna, wait for me," Konk drawled, standing up.

"You know what, though?" Lonna turned to Duplicate Boy. "I don't think my work is done. This heroing is what I've wanted to do for years. And there's still Terra Firma to deal with."

"Yeah," Konk agreed. "And there's plenty of people on Xanthu with powers. Some of them would probably want to do this too."

"I feel an idea coming on." Life Lass spoke up. "Gas Girl? Evolvo?"

"I can feel where this is going," Evolvo said with a slight smile. "Of course. What should we call ourselves?"

"Oh, something simple. The Heroes of Lallor?"

"I _like_ that idea!" Gas Girl perked up immediately at the suggestion of leaving.

"You have any ideas, Lonna?" Konk asked.

"The Amazing Xanthese?"

"No," Konk said thoughtfully. "The Xanthese Amazers?"

"Closer…" Insect Queen looked at Konk and had an idea. "The _Uncanny_ Amazers."

"That one. Definitely that one."

"This- this is _mutiny_!" Duplicate Boy sputtered.

"No, Ord," Lonna turned to face him. "This is us living up to our promises."

* * *

"Feeling better?" Imra asked, finally managing to get an arm around Cosmic Boy. Lightning Lad sat on his other side and did the same.

Rokk took a deep breath and smiled. "Yeah. A lot."

"So you'll stop yelling at us so much?" Garth asked hopefully.

"Don't count on it."

The redhead smiled broadly. "It would be boring, anyway."

"You know, I think things are going to improve now," Star Boy said optimistically. "I can feel it."

"There's still something in the way of team togetherness," Cham pointed out. He clapped a hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to say that.

"What's that?" Star Boy asked.

Chemical King shifted uncomfortably. "We can't truly work as a team until we've resolved the divide in opinions."

Bouncing Boy pulled a face. "Let's hear the opposition first, then."

"I've done some research," Nemesis Kid said.

"We _never_ would have guessed if you hadn't told us. How _astoundingly _out of character."

"I'm trying to make a _point_ here, Shadow Lass," Nemesis Kid told her, annoyed. "I only really knew Brainiac 5 from the time everything started to go wrong. So I looked at the old records and security tapes the Legion has on file, and the old news interviews Cosmic Boy gave, to get a better idea about him. It would seem he's _always_ been a smug, sarcastic, and overall, _secretive_ sort of person. I thought about everything I saw, and I decided Bouncing Boy made a good point in our meeting last year: we owe him a lot. You shouldn't walk away from debts. I still don't like what happened, but no one does. We'll probably never be friends; but I can work with him if I need to."

"I also realized I've been abrasive and critical just about the whole time I've been here. I'm not trying to make enemies, but I've been this way my whole life. Can you all give me some time…?"

"We gave Brainy six years and we'll give him more," Lyle told him, grinning. "Don't worry too much about it."

"Six years nothing," Matter-Eater Lad retorted. "Nobody's kicked Wildfire out yet. Or Shady. Or Sparky and Cos over there."

"You forgot Sun Boy," Wildfire pointed out huffily.

"Dirk…?" Projectra prompted.

He sighed frustratedly. "I'm never going to be comfortable around him again; but if it gets the team working right again I'll live with it."

"Good," Triplicate Girl said. She gestured to Shrinking Violet. "Now make up."

The two Legionnaires just stared at her.

"You don't have _hug_ each other or something," Phantom Girl sighed. "Just _do_ it."

Violet's mouth was set in a hard line, but she approached Sun Boy. "I've been very defensive about all of this. It's caused a lot of friction, but I can live with _you_ and your opinions if you'll live with me and _mine_. No more sneaking around to make sure we don't run into each other."

Dirk stuck out his hand. "Agreed. I've been pretty strong about my position; and_ I_ won't agree to agree with _you_; but I won't start anymore huge fights."

Violet took his hand and shook it. "Debates?"

"Debates."

"_Finally!_" Cham exclaimed. "Okay, we can all get on with our lives now, right?"

"I think I should say something here." Cosmic Boy spoke up. "This whole situation, the chaos within the team, it reminds me of the first year or so doing this."

No one bothered to point out that he'd talked about this already.

"We need Brainiac 5. I shouldn't have wished he would leave, but it's a bit like leaving home for the first time. You don't know what you need until it's gone. If he miraculously showed up right now, I'd take him back. No reservations."

Imra smiled at him.

"What about now?" Cham asked. "Anyone else have some soul-bearing to do?"

"I have something to say."

Everyone turned to Shvaughn.

"I've been thinking about what Cosmic Boy said. About failure."

She gave them all a fierce look.

"Don't _ever_ let anyone tell you you're failures. The _last_ time Earth had a superhero team based on it, the Justice League was still in operation. They protected one planet with an average of, what, seven core people? Adding some more for a big mission? You're protecting _countless_ star systems from _entire_ invading intergalactic armies, and running around to individual planets thousands of light-years apart, in most cases, for the smaller things. This entire team compromises… twenty-five people right now? You've done more with less."

Shvaughn paused.

"_You_ are what is keeping the United Planets from dissolving into a bunch of tiny civil wars that never truly go away. The whole system might still work, but that doesn't mean all the gears are lining up right all the time. The galaxy just wouldn't _work_ right if you weren't here. If anyone asks me about the Legion; _that_ is what I'm going to say."


	9. Chapter 9a

**Chapter 9a**

**Espionage, Part 1**

* * *

_Also entitled "Revenge of the Supporting Cast!"_

_I felt bad that I hadn't posted anything I'd written in so long that I just put up most of what I'd gotten done so far. Also, if I put up this whole chapter up at once, it would be __**ridiculously**__long. I don't want to subject anyone to that, so enjoy yourselves._

* * *

"_We did it, we did it, we did it_!" Cham danced around the bridge singing.

"I said things were looking up." Star Boy smiled.

"Yeah," Lyle smiled back. "Who would've thought it would happen so soon?"

* * *

"_Did you see this?" _Shrinking Violet stormed into Dream Girl's office. "Look what they're _saying!_"

Nura didn't have to look at the headline. She had seen it last night in her dreams.

"I'm sure they're wrong, Violet."

"Sure _how_?" the shorter girl glared at her. "Sure as in 'I've seen it and you don't need to be worried' or 'I'm going to say this to make you feel better'?"

"Neither, really. I just have a feeling its wrong."

"Is anyone looking into this?"

* * *

"It only took us, what, sixteen months?" Shadow Lass was sitting in the pilot's seat.

"But we've done it now." Lyle pointed out brightly. "We're improving."

"Yeah!" Cham was still dancing around. "And now Cos can't yell at us anymore! Not with a Terror Firma sitting in the hold!"

* * *

"The Daily Galaxy doesn't print _rumors_, Dream Girl! They get the _facts!_"

"No one else in the Legion has seen this yet." Nura kept her voice calm and even. "But I _will _tell Saturn Girl, if it makes you feel better."

"That is not going to make me feel better!" Violet was almost screaming now. "The Daily Galaxy's big news for today is '_**Brainiac 5: Dead?**_ _His former friends and teammates claim to have no knowledge of whereabouts. Months have passed without so much as a whispered word or a tentative sighting of the notorious Legionnaire. Until now. A Daily Galaxy reporter received a tip yesterday of the demise of the only Coluan to_-'"

"'-_set foot off the planet in decades._' I _know_, Violet. Calm down. I'll ask Dawny if she'll go out and see if she can find him _now_. And I'll ask for volunteers, too."

"That's not good enough," she muttered, stalking out.

* * *

"_What do you mean, dead?_" Lyle yelled into his ring. "It's a SciPol cell! You're not _supposed_ to be able to get in there without a code!"

"It _happened_, Lyle. Nobody knows how." Star Boy's voice was slightly tinny. "You need to go talk to Nura or somebody and get a team together."

He started down the hall. "So what _happened_, then?"

"They called in this telepath consultant to try and pry some information out of the Terror Firma guy. Jeyra Etinn. She had been working on the perp's mental shields when some guy teleported in and killed the other guy."

"_LYLE!_"

He looked up and saw Violet coming down the hallway.

"Have you heard about this? This is an outrage!"

"I _know_," he replied. "This sort of thing just shouldn't _happen_."

"They're saying he's dead!"

"I know, I'm talking to Star Boy about it now."

"How could they do that?"

"_I _can't believe we just let that happen. I mean, the Science Police should have called or something. We haven't managed to get one of these guys just to have him killed."

"Yeah- wait, _what_ are you talking about?"

"What are _you_ talking about?"

* * *

"You can come in, Maria." Dream Girl said, not looking up from her paperwork. "Have a seat."

Dawnstar stayed standing. "You wanted to see me for something."

"Read the news today?" Nura gestured over the top of her desk and a screen popped up. Dawnstar read it silently.

"I'm not doing it."

"I didn't ask you to do anything yet."

"I promised him before he left that I wouldn't lead the Legion to him. Even if he _is_ dead, the promise still stands. I won't back out on it."

"What if I don't ask you to find him? I was _going_ to ask you to take a team down to the Daily Galaxy and find the reporter who wrote the story, then track down his tip."

There was a silence as Dawnstar considered this. "I will take it on the condition that if _I_ feel the situation skirts to close to my promise, I can leave."

Nura sighed. "That's fair, I suppose._ I_ don't like it much; but I can't make you break your promise."

* * *

"Nura!"

Lyle banged her office door open.

"I asked Maria about it already, Lyle. She said she'll lead an investigation team on conditions. If Violet asks, it's being taken care of."

"Thom called and said that the Terror Firma guy we nabbed-"

"I'm making up a list of who to take for that. Tell Thom to get back here."

Lyle paused halfway out of the room, and turned back. "Have you been talking to Imra at _all_ about any of this?"

"She knows already. Don't worry about it."

* * *

Chameleon Boy was the last to get into the meeting. A good half the Legion was there.

Nura was standing on the floor. She pointed impatiently to a free seat in the top row. He had a good view of Shrinking Violet sitting uncomfortably between Lyle and Sun Boy in the row below him.

Dream Girl started talking. "Just to make sure everyone knows what happening: a captured Terror Firma operative was killed in a locked cell in full view of an interrogator, and there are… rumors that may be more truth than fiction involving the _possible_ death of Brainiac 5."

He saw Violet wince and Sun Boy straighten up suddenly.

"Shvaughn, Phantom Girl, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra, Colossal Boy, Shadow Lass, Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid, Shrinking Violet and myself will be going to investigate the Terror Firma case-"

"_Nura!_" Shrinking Violet yelled.

"-while Cosmic Boy, Dawnstar, Ultra Boy, Nemesis Kid, Sun Boy, Timber Wolf, and Star Boy will be investigating the rumors; starting at the Daily Galaxy."

"_NURA!_" Violet was standing now.

Dream Girl looked up at her. "You are _not_ going because I don't want you running roughshod over everything. If I put you on that mission, you are going to go dashing off at the first hint of _anything_ and the investigation is going to get so murky that we'll end up knowing even _less_ than we do now and you're going to get yourself into trouble that I _refuse _to dig you out of."

"But you're going to put the ones who- _mphff!_"

Lyle had stood and clamped his hand over her mouth. She glared and pushed him off, stalking out the door.

Lyle sighed and looked at Sun Boy. "If you see Brainy, say I said hi and that he needs to get his _butt_ back here."

He looked mournfully at Nura before heading for the door. "I'll be ready to leave as soon as _she_ is. Wish me luck and patience."

* * *

"No, we haven't got an appointment," Cosmic Boy said for the fifth time. "We didn't think we'd need one until earlier today."

"I can't let you in unless you have an appointment," the receptionist told him. "It's company policy; I'm _sorry_."

"Well, who do I contact to_ get_ an appointment?"

"You have to call the CEO's office and ask when she's got time free, then they'll call her and check her schedule and they'll get back to you."

"How long does that usually take?"

The receptionist sucked thoughtfully on the end of his pen. "The office usually takes about a week to get everything sorted out on their side, then a day or two after that to call you back, and then the appointment depends on how busy the CEO is-"

"Can I just have the number, please?"

"Sure-"

* * *

Dawnstar was looking around the lobby. People were staring as they streamed past on the way to their desks and offices. A few of the photographers took pictures. There was one reporter furtively recording in a half-hidden corner. She compared the faces she saw to the picture Nura had shown her of the reporter. No one matched.

"We haven't got _time_ for this, Cos!" Ultra Boy was saying loudly. "We've got to do this _now_."

"We need an appointment to see the CEO-"

"We don't _need_ to see the CEO!" He pushed his way past the guard-drones on the doors. "We _need_ to find this reporter guy."

"Jo, you're not supposed to be _doing _that!"

"The rules only apply if you _let _them, Cos! People _learn _that on Rimbor!"

* * *

The larger team finally set out for the SciPol Department. Lyle was worrying now.

"It's the _SciPols_, Nura! Why did you put _me_ on this?"

"This is going to involve a lot of sneaking around. You're _good_ at sneaking."

"But you _know_ what my relation with them is like!"

"I _could_ have picked Ultra Boy instead. _That_ would have been worse."

"They'll kick me out if they know I'm there!"

"Your dad will just have to stand the sight of us, Lyle. _We're_ not going to enjoy it either."

* * *

"_DEVLIN O'__**RY**__**ANNNNNN**__**!**_"

Ultra Boy slammed the doors to the main press floor open, scattering papers everywhere. Dawnstar came in after him.

"_Which one is he, Maria?_"

"Not until you calm down."

* * *

Timber Wolf was watching the reporters and shook his head in amazement. They were a strange breed. An angry superpowered former gangster come bursting through the doors screaming for one of them and they all reached for something to record with. It was amazing that there were any of the type still alive after all these centuries.

A brunette woman in green popped up next to him. "Care to make a statement?"

He didn't bother turning his head. "Hi, Mirella."

"Hey there Brin. How's life?"

"Oh, wonderful." He tried sounding completely neutral. "Your partner wrote a piece for this morning's paper."

She nodded. "I _told_ him the Legion would show up and it wouldn't be pretty. But he _refuses_ to listen to me."

"If I find you a better man, I'll send him over."

"Oh, _please_, no. Find me a better listener." She reached into her bag and took out a large envelope. "I brought you the source material for the story. Swiped it off O'Ryan first chance I got. Shouldn't be too contaminated."

"One step ahead, as always. Remind me why we stopped talking."

"You tried your hand at cooking instead of baking and I threw up all over the editor's floor later that afternoon. I still haven't forgiven you for that, by the way. I was pitching a story."

"Which, I recall, later won a prize in journalism. And I can now cook. Would it help if I send a cake over?"

"Possibly. Would you mind keeping _your _partner from throttling _my _partner?"

Jo had found Devlin O'Ryan and was looming over his desk threateningly.

"Cos'll get it. He won't let anybody get hurt if he can help it. Anyway, it could have been worse. It could have been Shrinking Violet over there right now." Timber Wolf sniffed the envelope. "Let's see where this takes us."

* * *

There was an officer waiting for the mission team when they arrived.

"Gigi!" Colossal Boy landed first and clapped her on the back. "You said you were going Mars!"

She punched his arm playfully. "They wanted to check me out. I'll be Assistant District Chief there if this mess works out."

"Hey, Shvaughn!" Gim called. "You know Gigi Cusimano?"

"I've heard of her." The two officers shook hands.

"So, uh, Officer Cusimano?" Lyle sidled forward, his eyes darting around. "Where exactly-"

"Chief Norg has the day off. He's not going to see you and I'm not going to say you were here."

"I think I'll keep invisible, all the same." He faded out of view. "Thanks, though."

"We're going to need to talk to this Jeyra Etinn," Dream Girl said. "Where is she?"

* * *

Gigi led them down a back hallway to a windowless room. A dark-haired lady in red sat in a low-backed chair. She rose when they came in.

"Officer Cusimano?" she looked at the SciPol questioningly. "I thought this was going to be a police investigation."

"The Legion has a few former officers in their ranks, Ms. Etinn," Gigi told her. "And, though the fact happens to be forgotten most of the time, every member of the organization has the same legal authority that the Science Police do. It comes from being an honorary part of the UP Executive Department."

"We're part of the Executive Department?" Phantom Girl asked quietly. "I don't remember anyone telling me that."

"It's from the very beginning of the Legion," Dream Girl said. "The founders agreed to that when they signed the charter we have with the UP."

"So my mom is in charge of me _twice_?"

"It would seem that way." Nura turned to Jeyra. "Could you tell us what happened, Ms. Etinn?"

"Well, you can call me Jeyra if you want." The consultant fidgeted a bit and continued. "The terrorist I was working on had mental shielding on him. I was working on it in one of the cells where they can turn the security off. Those ones are good for work where you can't afford distractions. I had almost figured out how to take them down when some of those other guys showed up. There was this light-blue guy and a really huge one. I think the blue guy was the one who teleported them in there. I… I panicked for a moment and the large one grabbed the prisoner I was working on and slammed his… his head…"

She gestured with her hand toward the walls.

"It shocked me into action and I hit the panic button so the security would come back on and someone would come send help. But they teleported out before the system came back on. My case was dead before anybody outside knew what was going on."

"Is the scene secured and sealed off?" Colossal Boy asked. "We should go see it."

"There's a lot of blood…" Jeyra seemed a little sick.

"You think blood bothers us?" Shadow Lass asked.

* * *

Star Boy watched Nemesis Kid. He was poking around Devlin O'Ryan's desk. The reporter himself was being interrogated forcefully near the wall by Ultra Boy, who was being discouraged by Cosmic Boy. Timber Wolf was talking to a reporter. Dawnstar and Sun Boy were standing around looking lost.

He walked over to Hart. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm trying to see if there's anything useful for the case here." He flipped through a stack of papers. "But I don't see anything about this article."

Star Boy considered a thought for a moment. "I'm not really sure that's what you're doing."

Nemesis Kid looked startled for a minute, then smiled ironically. "You aren't as dense as you act, are you?"

"I act dense?"

Hart shook his head. "I'm distracting myself. I _know _this mission is important, but I feel so _useless_! I can understand that Cosmic Boy is here because of the authority he wields most places, Timber Wolf and Dawnstar are here because they're trackers, and Jo because he's the muscle. But I'm an information analyst, and the other team is at the Science Police Department. I used to be a SciPol before I joined this team, but when a job that could use my expertise comes up, I end up on the other one."

"Nura and I are sort of technically dating, but that doesn't mean I know why she makes her decisions. Usually it's because she knows things other people don't until they've happened."

"No, I think I know why," he sighed. "Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy and I were the biggest detractors of Brainiac 5. Dream Girl doesn't trust us so she's trying to make sure that we mean what we said a few weeks ago. She would have done it sooner but everything's been so busy-"

"So what exactly did you say?"

The two Legionnaires turned and Star Boy recognized the reporter Timber Wolf had been talking to. The Legionnaire in question was wandering around, sniffing the air.

"Are you taking _notes _on this?" Nemesis Kid asked.

"I'm a reporter." She held out her hand. "Mirella Tao."

Star Boy took it. "There's been an ongoing disagreement in the Legion. The team as a whole sorted it out about two months ago, but not everything's settled out between members yet."

"So what did Nemesis Kid say?"

Star Boy looked at him questioningly.

"I did some research."

* * *

Jeyra Etinn had been right. There was a lot of blood.

Shadow Lass walked comfortably around the puddles and splashes, noting where they were. Lyle was walking, still invisible, just behind her.

Nura stood just outside the door to the room, hands on her hips.

"Do the cells still have shields on them when the security is switched off?" she asked Gigi.

"I don't know. You'd have to ask the technicians."

"They do, Dream Girl," Shvaughn interjected. "I remember that from my time here."

"Okay, well, what exactly do they shield against?"

Shvaughn shrugged. "The general things, most likely. Gunshots, physical violence, mental interference, general ability dampening. I can go check if you like."

"Please do that, Shvaughn."

Karate Kid came up after she left. "It looks like this man had his head hit quite a few times, Dream Girl. More than long enough for Jeyra Etinn to have hit the panic switch."

"People freeze up sometimes, Val," she said. "We're just not used to it in the Legion. Not everyone has your reflexes, either."

"It just seems odd to me."

"We can look into it." She picked her way carefully over to Violet and Phantom Girl. He followed her. "Grab Lyle and take a look around the security system, will you? I want to see if it got damaged in any way, and exactly when all the events were supposed to be happening. Val doesn't think it adds up."

She looked around. "Where's Cham?"

"He was in here a minute ago," Tinya said, puzzled.

* * *

"So, how do you plan to figure out this mystery?"

Jo looked down in amazement. "_Seriously?_ You're in this position and you're _still_ asking questions?"

"I'm a reporter," Devlin O'Ryan retorted, completely unconcerned by the fact he was being dangled through the air at speed. "It's my _life_ to ask questions and discover the answers."

Cosmic Boy sighed and spoke into his ring. "Any luck yet, Timber Wolf?"

"I've got something," Brin said from the other end. He was alternating between the ground and the city rooftops. "Maria says that she's picking up something every so often, but she can't focus on it."

"Where's it heading?"

"Northwesternish from Weisinger Plaza and Legion HQ. Past Shuster Park."

"College Town?"

"Maybe."

"So you think this story came from a college student?" Mirella had refused to let the Legion take Devlin without taking her as well. Star Boy was carrying her.

"Probably not. The students that go to the Metropolis Universities are _really_ serious about what they do." Star Boy told her. "It's a pretty prestigious place."

"It's still a possibility, though?"

"Everything is a possibility at this point, Ms. Tao," Cos said. "Timber Wolf, Dawnstar, meet us on top of Legion HQ. We all need to discuss this."

* * *

"I take it we're here to discuss a plan of action?" Dawnstar asked.

"We need to think about this before we do too much more," Cos told her. "This is important."

"What exactly do we need to do here?" Star Boy asked, landing. He put Mirella down gently.

"Correlate information," Nemesis Kid said. "Gather the facts. Make a plan."

Thom smiled at him. Now Hart had found his purpose on this mission.

"We know that Devlin O'Ryan received a large bit of information anonymously that contains information that claims to prove the death of Brainiac 5. Timber Wolf and Dawnstar have managed to pick out where this trail leads, though indistinctly. We know it leads past the park and possibly into College Town-"

"-definitely into College Town." Dawnstar said. "I'm sure of it now."

"And that 's all we know right now. Anyone have any ideas?"

"Well," Jo began. "We know some people in that part of town. Laurel has her new abbey there; and it's not like anyone's really seen her since she left the Legion. And Yera goes to the performance school there."

"So we should be concerned with contacting these people. Splitting up is a good idea at this point."

"I will take Ultra Boy and go to see Laurel." Dawnstar said. "Cosmic Boy should take some others and find Yera. Timber Wolf should keep tracking in the area."

"Good plan. Now, I'll go-"

"I wasn't done yet."

Hart looked at her. "Were you going to suggest subteams?"

"No. I want to know how the three of you have managed not to start shooting your mouths off. Especially Sun Boy. He hasn't talked yet at all."

Sun Boy shifted uncomfortably. "I've thought about it some more. I started asking myself: When did it get like this?"

He walked over closer to the group. "I remember back when we first started out. Everything was _easy_. We were good guys, we fought bad guys, we won. Everything was simple. Then there was Trom and the Suneater and the Magic Wars. Suddenly _we_ weren't as good as we thought and_ they_ weren't as bad as we thought. We figured out the criminals kept coming back and we couldn't always stop them."

Hart sighed. "I know where this is going. We grew up. Got disillusioned, I guess. It was just that Imperiex was the next big thing after all that and we were… bitter at the universe for not living up to our expectations anyway. It was the last straw. And then with Brainiac 5- well, we already knew how fallible we all were. And they remembered him from back when he was a little snob _all the time_, and I knew him from when he was in a permanently bad mood from Kell and his ancestor. They knew they had changed, but it didn't seem like he had any. It just seemed like business as usual to me, so…"

"He was an easy target for your issues." Brin translated. "And you were being pricks."

"We've already established that," Cosmic Boy said. "We're sorry and we're going to track this person down and prove it to everyone else."

* * *

"They're gone," Duplicate Boy said, ducking down into the sewers again.

"Remind me why I'm following you again?" Atmos asked him.

"I am still the _legitimate leader_ of a _legitimate_ peacekeeping force that _you_ are a member of. _You_ listen to _me_."

"Didn't stop anyone else from leaving."

"Then you follow me of your own volition for respect to the traditions of the law."

"No. And I'm _not_ here to serve your ego, either."

* * *

"Can you see anything, Violet?"

"Nope. No damage here."

Karate Kid sighed. "All right. Will you move onto the next section?"

"Already on it."

Phantom Girl came through the wall. "None of the wiring looks obviously tampered with, but I don't know much about security systems."

"I know something is wrong here," Val told her. "But I can't seem to figure out what."

"I think we're going about this the wrong way," Lyle's disembodied voice drifted out from somewhere left of them. "When something doesn't work, it usually means you're asking yourself the wrong questions."

"So what would the right questions be, Norg?" Violet asked from his ring.

"Well, we've been looking at what people might have done to the system, so what has the system been doing to the people?"

"What?"

"The system. People get used to working with a system; we've proved that with the way our plans keep falling apart. So what are people _here_ used to?"

"Everything has a weak point." Karate Kid agreed.

* * *

Cham was sneaking openly in the building. He had taken the general shape of a human probation-officer, a cadet new to the establishment, and was nosing around in the tech department.

"Hey, you-" one of the tech workers looked at his nametag. "Probationer Daggle. Did administration send you down here?"

Cham took a quick glance at the tech's rank markings and saluted. "I'm an Administrations Intern, sir. I'm supposed to learn about all the different departments and report back."

"Ah, interns," the tech said knowingly. "Anything in particular the ones on high want you to know?"

"Interrogation cell security, sir."

"Right. Well, the cells are all shielded against attacks from the outside; physical and mental. We can shut them off from in here, and the panic switch in the cells switches it back in case of emergency. The wiring is the key to it all-"

* * *

"This is disgusting." Atmos grumbled from behind Duplicate Boy. "If this were a legitimate organization, we'd be going in through the front door. Not sneaking in through the plumbing."

"_We are a legitimate organization._" Duplicate Boy said through clenched teeth. "Now blow the grating on this pipe."

* * *

Cosmic Boy, Nemesis Kid, Sun Boy, and Star Boy landed in the Universities' main courtyard with Devlin and Mirella. Students, teachers, and visitors stared; but most kept walking. A couple drifted closer, taken by this strange occurrence.

"So, where do we start?" Nemesis Kid asked. "I've only ever seen Yera when she comes to see Colossal Boy and-"

"Legionnaires!"

He turned to see a tall young man cannoning toward him. Hart stepped aside quickly, and the stranger skidded straight through the spot he had been standing in, pulled up just before he hit Star Boy, and spun to face Cos.

"It's a great honor to meet you all! Ever since I got to this school I have been hoping for a meeting such as this! I really can't ever say how much I owe you-"

Cos looked at his clothes and put up a hand to stop the flow of words. "You're Kryptonian, aren't you?"

He smiled widely. "You noticed!"

"Of _course_ he noticed." Yera came strolling up behind him. "That's what they _do_."

She smiled at the Legionnaires, putting a hand on the Kryptonian's arm. "This is Xao-Ji. He's the first Kryptonian ever at this school and the sole reason for all the new furniture you'll see around here. And the new doors, and some new walls."

Xao-Ji looked at her mournfully and spread his arms. "I _am_ trying, Yera. But everything here is so _fragile_."

Yera smiled at him kindly. "I know, Xao. You've been doing _much_ better lately."

"Really?" he asked, obviously pleased.

"Of course." The smile fled from her face as she looked back toward the mission team. "What are you doing here? Did something happen to Gim?"

"No." Star Boy started to explain. "You see-"

"Yera!"

They all turned to see a red-headed man, about the same age as Xao, jogging toward them. A taller man in purple was following him, leading a straggle of other people coming out of a café from across the courtyard.

"What's going on?" the red-head asked, panting slightly.

"They were _about_ to tell me, but I got_ interrupted_ by a certain scientist I know."

"Sorry." The man smiled briefly at the Legionnaires. "I'm Jaxon Rugarth. I work at the Time Institute here on campus. The tall guy back there with the funny hair is Rond Vidar."

"Funny hair?" Rond had caught up with Jaxon. "Really?"

"Tiny little bangs, man," he said, crooking his index fingers and holding them to his forehead for emphasis. "Cut 'em off or grow it out."

"They're lab partners," Yera told Cos, leaning over and speaking behind her hand.

"Oh. Yeah. I can tell now."

"And these people-" Jaxon continued, flinging his arms out for emphasis. "Are the cream of the crop here at the MetroU!"

"Jaxon…" sighed a woman with long black hair.

"This image of beauty is Harmonia Li, popularly considered to know whether that fifth drink is a good idea or not."

"The answer is always _no_, Jaxon. You would understand that if you paid any attention to history, for the mistakes of the past have much to teach those of the future."

"She also speaks cryptically in everyday conversation. The big guy behind her is Richard Kent Shakespeare, who once walked into a titanium beam and came out the better of the two."

"I have a hard head, okay?" he said, clearly used to this story. "It's a family thing."

"The other lovely lady is Dr. Chaseer, the only over-3o here. She's been studying remote space-time viewing for as long as anyone can remember."

"I'm glad you know better than to treat me to your usual antics, Mr. Rugarth."

Jaxon shrugged in the general direction of Mirella Tao. "She's my vice-boss."

"Really?" The reporters had been taking notes feverishly. "So, about this space-time viewing-"

"You were _saying_?" Yera interrupted.

Cosmic Boy started. "It's like this-"

* * *

Dawnstar and Ultra Boy landed inside the walls of the abbey. Jo looked around, interested.

"An order all her own. Who would've thought."

"The Valorite Council, it would seem." Dawnstar said. "This way, Ultra Boy."

They were halfway to the front doors when they opened from the inside. A tall blonde woman in a mostly-red habit stepped out. "I wasn't expecting visitors today. Something on your mind?"

"Hey, Andi!" Jo waved. "Long time no see!"

"Hello, Jo," she said distractedly. "It's good to see you again, too."

Laurel looked worriedly at Dawnstar. "You're here about Brainiac, right? It's been all over the newspapers."

"Dream Girl put together some teams," he said. "There are other people on this mission; Cosmic Boy just has them out on the campus."

"You're tracking someone from the college?"

"We're not sure yet. The trail of whoever gave that information leads through here, at the least. I was hoping you could assist us."

"Do they call you Sister Laurel or are you still going by Andromeda?" Jo asked, completely off topic.

Laurel smiled tiredly. "Sister Andromeda, mostly. I _might_ be able to spare some time. We're still settling in here."

She glanced back toward the doors. "Would you like some tea?"

"Depends." Jo said. "You got coffee?"

"I'm sure I could find some."

* * *

Shadow Lass was still looking at the blood.

"The more I look at this, the more I start agreeing with KK," she told Dream Girl.

Nura sighed softly. "You too?"

"I'm used to blood, Dreamy. Talok is a warrior culture," she reminded the precognitive. "I know from experience how much a lot of different sorts of people can bleed before they pass out. Or die."

She looked around covertly. "I know exactly how much to hurt a human to keep one on just this side of death. I can do it for almost any Legionnaire's species."

Nura shivered. "_Please_ don't say that where they can hear you. Some of them still call you a barbarian behind your back."

"Talok is an ancient and highly respected galactic culture. They should know better."

"Can we get back on topic, please?" Dream Girl asked. "Why exactly do you agree with Karate Kid?"

"The blood splatters," Shadow Lass gestured at the wall. "They're everywhere. One head-bashing shouldn't spread blood around like this."

"So are we agreed that something weird is going on with this?"

"Only if you are," Shady glanced around. "Where's the officer? I want to see the body."

* * *

Gigi, Shvaughn, and Colossal Boy were relaxing in the empty officer lounge when the door opened.

"Hey, you," Gigi stood up. "Probation Officer, what are you doing in here?"

"I'm on my way to the Archives, Officer Cusimano," he saluted.

"Well, Probationer…" she craned her head to look at his nameplate. "…Daggle. Don't come through here again. This is only for accepted officers."

"Permission to speak, ma'am?"

"Permission, Probationer."

"Your friend on the couch over there isn't an accepted officer."

"He was at one point," Gigi said crossly. "And the Legion has all the powers of law that the Science Police do."

"Sorry ma'am."

The probationer started toward the door, only to find six-and-a-half feet of Legionnaire in front of him.

"Uh, sir? Did you have something to ask me?"

Colossal Boy stared at him for a long minute.

"Drop it, Cham."

The probationer sighed and dropped his formal stance, his whole posture changing. His features melted into a Durlan face, the clothes morphing and changing colors.

Gigi looked askance at him. "It's a little creepy how good you are at that. None of our probationers are as good at that as you are."

"You could use some better security around here," Cham said. "It was _really_ easy to get the tech people to answer my questions. You're lucky I wasn't a criminal."

"What did you want with records, Chameleon Boy?" Shvaughn asked.

"I was going to do a check on Jeyra," he told her. "It occurred to me: if it was so easy for me to get information, without anyone checking my creds; then what could someone with a security pass get at?"

Shvaughn looked at him for a minute, then started towards the door. "Let's go talk to the archivists."

* * *

"That's bad," Jaxon said. "That's _really_ bad."

"So you see our problem here," Star Boy told Yera. "Do any of you have any idea-"

"_Please_ do not finish that sentence," Rond said, holding up a hand. "Half the people on this campus are what you would call 'hard' scientists, chemists and physicists and biologists and such. Another quarter are scientists of the 'soft' sort, who study anthropology or psychology or theology and the related fields. The ones who aren't scientists, the performers and business majors and law students, can't avoid the scientists on campus; whether they be students, teachers, or chronologists at the Time Institute. This-"

He gestured to the general area of Metropolis University. "-is probably the most scientist-friendly place in the whole city, maybe the whole district. I can say in good faith that there is _no one_ here who would spread the type of rumors you're talking about."

Cosmic Boy looked slightly cowed. "Is there _anyone _we can talk to?"

"Just a minute," Jaxon said, and dragged Rond and Xao-Ji off to a spot a few yards away; Yera, Harmonia, and Dr. Chaseer following.

"If they're having a conference, we can have one too," Mirella told everyone firmly. "Dev, you picking anything up?"

"There's definitely a love for the Legion here, Brainiac 5 especially," he said. "But I can't tell if it's because he's a scientist and there's a strong community solidarity or because they actually like the guy."

"We should ask," Sun Boy said. "I feel like it'll be really important later on."

"Should we split up?" Nemesis Kid asked. "I think it could be a good idea."

"I'd like to take some pictures," Devlin told them. "This is turning out to be an even better story than the other one."

"I'm going with you." Mirella's voice brooked no argument. "You'll get into trouble without me. Sun Boy can come too."

"Bu-" the Legionnaire in question began.

"You're coming."

Star Boy got a knowing look on his face. "Of _course_ he will. I'll go and find Timber Wolf."

"So that leaves Nemesis Kid and I to go with these students," Cos finished. "Everyone agreed?"

Jaxon came back over. "Some of us have business to finish, but there're a couple of us who'll take you to see the guy you probably need."

"Nemesis Kid and I are going with you," Cos told him. "The others have things to go do as well."

Jaxon gestured and started walking. Hart and Rokk followed him, and Rond and Xao-Ji followed them.

"Kent already went to tell him you're coming. The guy loves him, so you shouldn't have any problem talking to him."

"Who are we talking about here?" Nemesis Kid asked.

"One of the professors from the Med Department, Dr. Gym'll. He teaches the classes on metabeing-inflicted injuries."

* * *

Jo sighed happily. "I love coffee."

Laurel smiled tiredly at him. "Glad you like it. I can't stand the stuff myself, but the novices keep making it for me."

"So how's religious life?"

"Tiring, fulfilling, active-" she smiled wider. "Good for the soul. Regular stuff. I end up doing a lot of charity work, and besides that it's mostly counseling. But for the life of me I can't imagine why anyone would want counseling from me."

"Hey, you're a Legionnaire," Jo said nonchalantly. "And you don't give yourself enough credit. You're a likable person, you're good at what you do… and you're a nun. People trust nuns."

"But-"

"No arguing," Jo smirked. "I'm right and you know it."

Dawnstar held her tea carefully in her hands, her legs tucked under her on the seat. "Sister Andromeda, what do you know about this situation?"

"With Brainiac?" She ran her hand through her hair. "Not much. Just what the newspapers have been saying. The only thing I'm _sure_ of is that it can't be true."

"Are you certain?"

"_Absolutely_," she said with conviction. "I would _know_."

"Really?" Jo asked.

"A galaxy without Brainiac 5. Think about it, Jo," Laurel told him. "I'm sure you'd be able to tell if he wasn't_ there_ anymore."

He grimaced. "It's been really obvious in the Legion, at least. But the whole galaxy? How could we tell?"

"Saturn Girl," she said promptly. "She's the most powerful telepath in the last century, and probably in at least the last millennium off Titan. Wouldn't she _know_ if he died?"


	10. Chapter 9b

**Chapter 9**

**"Espionage, Part 2"**

* * *

_Also entitled "Revenge of the Supporting Cast (Part 2)!"_

_If I had put up this whole chapter up at once, it would be __**ridiculously**__long. Seriously, the whole thing is 32 pages in a word document. I didn't want to subject anyone to that, so here's the rest of 'Espionage', now that's it's finally done._

* * *

Gigi and Shvaughn showed the Archive Security their credentials and ushered Cham and Gim into the room. There were terminals for tape and document viewing centered in the middle of the room, but most of the wallspace was taken up with banks of memory storage and wiring.

"So what exactly were you going to look for?" Gigi asked. "There's a lot in here."

"I'm going to check on Jeyra's credentials," Cham said. "There's something about her…"

"I guess I'll look at the case files again," Gim said unenthusiastically.

* * *

Gigi and Shvaughn wandered around the room, talking and checking out the hidden corners for eavesdroppers.

"So, what's living with the Legion like?" Gigi asked.

"Busy," Shvaughn told her. "Someone is always doing something. It doesn't even have to be law enforcement. Invisible Kid and Shrinking Violet spend all their extra time in the lab, arguing and blowing things up. Triplicate Girl is in the middle of an overhaul of the medical wing, and some of the Legionnaires split their time between helping and trying to beat each other at however many games they can come up with. The Founders are always doing diplomacy or paperwork or administrative stuff, it seems. The few of them who'll have other responsibilities later on –Dream Girl, the Princess, Chameleon Boy over there- their spare time is taken up teaching themselves about their eventual duties and the current situations. A couple like Shadow Lass and Ultra Boy use their extra time to train and spar with each other. Then there's Phantom Girl and Sun Boy. Always a date, always someone different. Though Phantom Girl just splits her time between Timber Wolf and Ultra Boy, and Sun Boy picks up whoever looks at him-"

"Whoa, okay, I get it!" Gigi said. "Always something happening. Does anyone get any downtime?"

"No one really seems to want it. Even when they have 'time off' they have to do something. Nobody seems to have any concept of relaxation."

She paused. "No, that's not _quite_ true," she corrected herself. "Karate Kid and Element Lad manage to take time out of every day to sit and meditate. 'Take a breather' is what Bouncing Boy likes to call it. It seems like the only time you see any of the rest of them sitting down is when they're eating, or in a meeting, or waiting for something. But even then that's not always the case."

"I can't see most of the SciPols I know keeping up with that," Gigi admitted. "Sounds too busy. Doesn't anyone have a personal life?"

"Everyone manages somehow. There's a betting pool going on whether Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad or Triplicate Girl and Bouncing Boy are going to be the first 'serious' couple, another bet on whether Phantom Girl will end up picking Timber Wolf or Ultra Boy, and _another_ one on when Cosmic Boy will unbend enough to really get into a relationship, and there would be one on when Sun Boy will _really_ get a girlfriend, but I think everyone's pretty much given up there."

Gigi stopped and leaned against a bank of memory. "These Legionnaires, they really mean a lot to you, don't they?"

"I guess they do," Shvaughn said slowly. "I hadn't really thought about it, but I've lived with them so long now that I can't imagine going back to a squad. Everything would be so… tame."

"The Science Police? Tame?" Gigi's tone was incredulous.

"Compared to what the Legion does, yes," Shvaughn told her. "The Science Police don't really have the equipment or the manpower to counter the sort of stuff the Legion handles. The UP Fleet and the planetary armies have the equipment and the power, but they don't have the Legion's flexibility. Or their legal power, either. The Legion is really the best of both worlds here. And you haven't _lived_ with them, Gigi."

Shvaughn's voice grew distant, and just a little awestruck. "It's really amazing what they do. Only about thirty people, covering… what? 7.85 trillion square light years, with light covering about 9 and a half trillion meters a year? Who can _think_ in numbers that big?"

"Brainiac 5, from what I'd heard."

She ignored Gigi. "And they try to protect everyone in that area, and I think they do an astounding job of it, considering the obstacles they face. There are still worlds that don't particularly like them; and every time the Legion doesn't manage a perfect execution of something, those worlds use it against them. They've been doing this for over seven years now, and they're all still sane. Through everything they've seen and done."

"What kind words."

Gigi and Shvaughn both reached for their sidearms at the same time, knocking a cart of maintenance supplies over. The room seemed to shift for a moment as they experienced a violent change in perception, and Princess Projectra stood before them.

"Don't say it," Shvaughn told her as Cham and Gim showed up to investigate the noise. "We have bad security."

* * *

"Do you have any _idea_ how long it's going to take me to get this stink off of me?"

"Stop griping, Atmos," Duplicate Boy snapped. "This must be the main room. Spread out and look around. Where's Inferno?"

He got a feeling and turned around. The small girl was staring at his back with her usual impassable expression, her arms crossed.

"Well, don't just _stand_ there! Go _find _something!"

"Find _what_, oh egomaniacal one?" Atmos was tipping the cushions off the couch. "There's an entire _building_ here, you know."

"Something! _Anything!_ We need to know how they do what they do, about the people…" He got a mad glint in his eye. "Find their secrets."

* * *

Inferno wandered from floor to floor, her only goal to look busy and avoid the two men in the building. She had looked in the kitchen, and noticed the signs of wear on the pots and the much used cookbooks and baking recipes. Anything that was even remotely like paper -which there was a surprisingly lot of- had slight tears and depressions in it.

So Timber Wolf was a kitchen person. You wouldn't have been able to tell by looking at him.

Someone had left the lab unlocked. She walked in and peered in confusion at the myriad machines and devices. The only part that looked even remotely comprehensible was back counter. There was a collection of carefully cleaned and arranged chemistry glassware in one corner and a slightly more haphazard pile of scientific printouts and physical magazines, held in check by some inscrutable pieces of… _something_ in the other.

Shrinking Violet and Invisible Kid were at odds with each other, but worked together. Why?

She poked around in the drawers. The ones on Invisible Kid's side were stuffed full of handwritten letters –what _was_ it with Legionnaires and old-time things? It must be some sort of affliction- and holopics. Many seemed to be of a family, clearly _not_ his biological one from the skin coloring, and more were of Invisible Kid and the boy from the mystery family. A few showed the two of them and what was probably the strange boy's sister. The rest were of Legionnaires; some pictures with him in them and some not. Most of those were with Chemical King, who always managed to look slightly mystified but joyous. A very few were of Brainiac 5; and they always seemed to have been taken without permission.

Shrinking Violet's side was bare of personal items, but the drawers were just as ordered as the chemistry equipment on the far side. There were tools, and cloth rolls of what she decided had to be other tools to small for her to see. There were thick reference books, and a few bits of paper in some form of writing she couldn't read. In the bottom drawer were some electronic readers. She pulled one out and turned it on. It seemed to contain nothing but bits of security video from around the building, and quite a few still frames from those tapes. The only thing they had in common was Brainiac 5.

So the scientists were united in their mutual personal interest. Inferno realized the only way to know more about the most likely dysfunctional relationship was to ask the people involved, and left.

* * *

Timber Wolf sniffed around the rooftops and stretches of carefully cared-for grass of Metropolis Universities. There were hints of food and stress and kisses in the air, and thousands of scents from many places around the city he recognized rising from the paths and grass. A few stood out. Yera, he picked up easily. There was a group of people she was usually with, he could tell, but he didn't know any of them. There were infuriating hints of _something_ he knew he should know, but couldn't place. Brin found an unused bench and sat down, closing his eyes to focus on the senses he needed.

There were familiar scents. He could smell Cosmic Boy, the reporters, and the rest of the sub-team on the slight breeze. There were the even more familiar scents of late autumn; and the slightly less identifiable odors of a city. There were slight rustlings in the trees, and faint footsteps on the grass, and the heartbeats of small, warm, furry animals- _that were not for chasing_.

He opened his eyes to distract himself and found the infuriating hints again. He got up and followed them in the air, ending up on a roof to try and catch it again when a shift in the breeze made him lose it.

Brin took a deep breath and found the hints again. He followed them until he got to the Time Institute.

He was about to push the door open when a woman suddenly stood in his way.

"You aren't allowed in here."

"I'm fairly sure I'm allowed to," he told her. "Who are you?"

"I'm Harmonia Li. I _work_ here. I _know_ you don't, and _yes_, I know who you are. I _also_ know you don't have security clearance to be in here; so no matter _how_ many people you've saved, you can't be in here."

"But-"

"No buts. You either leave and don't come back or leave and come back with a search warrant."

Brin left, and decided to take a good long sniff around the case material Mirella had given him again. Harmonia reminded him too much of some of the Legion women when they were crossed.

* * *

Inferno wandered up to the personal rooms for the Legionnaires. The first room she entered was mostly bare, but the color scheme and the feeling that there was a lot more to the room than met the eye, accompanied by a quick check in the closet, proved it was Phantom Girl's. There was a box the size of her hand on the dresser. When she opened it, it contained only one piece of jewelry: a gold brooch the size of her hand, set with a red stone. She took it out and felt engraving on the backside. She turned it over and read: _To Enya. Happy Birthday; Go After Your Dreams. Winema._

Something to do with the president, then; and not her daughter.

The next room was filled to bursting with flowering plants and brightly colored throw rugs and pillows, the walls painted to match the cloth. Crystals and chimes hung from the ceiling, throwing light and sound around the room. The air was slightly perfumed by the flowers, and Inferno felt as if someone had tried to cram an entire world into one room. Some poking around in the corners showed there was one secluded nook were there wasn't a riot of color, but the placement of the space and the choice of plants to screen the place was set up to create a very calm feeling. A closet check showed her there was good reason for the feel of the room. Element Lad hadn't yet given up Trom.

A homesick Legionnaire, pining after a place he can never truly return to.

The darkness in the next room stopped her in her tracks. She tried to let her eyes adjust to light levels, but could only make out vague shapes. Not trusting her vision, she called up a small flame. _Everything_ in the room was some shade of black or navy; the carpet, the bed coverings, the upholstery on the chair, the walls… the only part that wasn't completely dark was the ceiling, where tiny silver and white stick-lights picked out a night sky. Only Shadow Lass could live in such a dark place.

Another Legionnaire trying to recapture a bit of home.

The last room she visited was warmly outfitted in golds and browns, with accents of blue and warm gray. Earth colors, the right ones for farming. There was a collection of pictures on a shelf by the bed. Most were of a family, with young children; and the rest were of Legionnaires. But the one picture given the most prominent place was of three children, two with red hair and one with white. Lightning Lad's family, the thing that really mattered.

He had a cute sister…

* * *

Something was nagging at the back of Cosmic Boy's mind as Jaxon and Xao-Ji, neither of whom seemed to be able to do anything calmly, led the way to this Dr. Gym'll. He decided not to think about it, and started talking with Rond Vidar.

"So what exactly do you _do _at the Time Institute?" he asked.

"Well, they let me do pretty much whatever I want, really," the scientist told him modestly. "I was the best time-scientist any of them had ever seen."

"Was?"

"Until they heard about Brainiac 5," Rond explained. "You know we were working on localized platform-centered time travel at the same time? The Institute would have _loved_ to get him working on something then."

"So when did you get it?" Nemesis Kid asked.

"Get what? Oh; the time travel?" Rond asked. "I finished it up and published my paper just a little before he did."

The thing in the back of Cosmic Boy's head clicked. "You said Rond _Vidar_, right?"

The scientist smiled nervously. "That's my father you're thinking of. Sarmon Vidar. You've fought him a few times. He calls himself Universo."

Nemesis Kid thought for a moment before saying anything. "You see much of him?"

"Not at all," Rond shook his head vigorously. "_I_ was the one who originally called the police on him. I've lived _much_ better without him in my life."

"Come on, come on!" Xao was bouncing all over. "We're here!"

* * *

The two Legionnaires entered the office.

"Oh, the _Legion_ again, Kent? You could have _said_." The small purple man with two sets of arms had an air of permanent, endearing annoyance. For a moment, Cos had to shake off the memory of Brainiac 5's first day in the Legion.

"Do we know you?" Hart asked with all his usual tact.

"'_Do we know you?'_ he says," the doctor muttered to the air. "Why _no_, of _course_ you don't know me. _I've_ just been called out to treat you people _every time_ you manage to get yourselves stuck in a hospital. But do _any_ of you bother to thank the doctor or the medical staff? _No-o._ You _wake up _from whatever-it-was _this time_ and go _harking_ off into the unknown depths of villainy just to go through it _all._ _Again_."

"I'm sorry," Cosmic Boy said. "You were the doctor who was in charge of Saturn Girl, weren't you? I should have remembered that."

He paused to let it sink in, then continued. "I'm not entirely sure why we were brought here to see you, actually. We're looking for information on who gave the source material for the Brainiac 5 article the Daily Galaxy put out today-"

Dr. Gym'll shoot a look at Kent. "What could have _possibly_ possessed you to _think_ that I could know _anything_ of this?"

"You know everything about everyone who shows up on campus, Professor," Kent said cheerfully. "And I figured you would like to talk to some Legionnaires while they were awake and listening."

"Hmph." The doctor looked the two Legionnaires up and down. "Well, _I_ don't know anything about any Brainiac 5, _or_ anyone who would have anything to say about him._ I_ never saw the boy. Only one of you who _ever_ managed to keep himself _out_ of the hospital."

Rokk and Hart glanced at each other and decided at the same instant not to say _anything _to the doctor.

* * *

"Huh," Jo said, and fell silent.

Dawnstar and Laurel kept talking while he thought. Saturn Girl would _know_ if Brainy was dead. He was sure Laurel was right about that. So she would know to call HQ and reassure – or, Lord forbid, _break the news to_- everyone. But she hadn't. And she was Legion Leader. And Nura was her second. And _she_ was the one who had sent half the available people out on this mission. Nura could see the future. Dawnstar was on this mission. She could track people.

And Laurel would_ know_ as well, would she…?

He set down his coffee cup with a thump. "I am getting _played_," he told the two women flatly. "And don't try and tell me I'm not."

He glared at Laurel. "_You_ know where he is. _And _I'm betting Imra and Nura and _you_-" he shifted the glare to Dawnstar for a moment. "Know too. So how about we all drop the charade and decide whether or not this whole mission is a magnificent waste of time."

Jo leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms.

Dawnstar and Laurel looked at each other. "You are wrong, Ultra Boy," Dawnstar said, and stood up. "Thank you for your hospitality, Sister Andromeda; but I believe we have gathered all the information we need from here."

* * *

"Okay, Norg," Violet said. "Let's say your line of reasoning is good for a moment. How has the system been messing with the people?"

"Well…" Lyle began. "What are prison systems designed for?"

"To keep people in," Phantom Girl said immediately.

"Right," Karate Kid said. "Imprisonment. No one gets out, no one gets in."

"Except someone got in this time," Lyle pointed out.

"So _how_ would people get into a cell?" Phantom Girl asked.

"They teleported," Violet reminded her.

"I feel as if we are getting sidetracked," Val said. "No one gets in… so who lets the people who _do_ get in in?"

"Police," Lyle muttered. "Cheating, lying, insider-trading police."

Violet shot a disapproving look at where she thought Lyle was. "Be nice, Norg. We're here by their invitation."

"'Insiders give invitations'," Tinya chuckled. "I remember my mom saying that once."

She paused. "So if you need an _invitation_ to get in a jail cell, and _insiders_ give it…"

"And _who_ was on the inside, again?" Violet reminded them grimly.

Val and Lyle caught up. "Jeyra Etinn."

* * *

Shadow Lass stared at the undertaker, her face showing nothing.

"So, _why_ can't I see the body again?"

"Hygiene, laws, and evidence," the undertaker chanted again.

The Legionnaire sighed, started to turn; then whipped back around and punched the man in the jaw. He dropped to the floor, and she stepped over him.

"Sorry," she muttered, not really meaning it.

She pulled open one refrigerated body drawer after another, looking critically at each cadaver until she found the correct one. Examining its head, she nodded in satisfaction. There was way too much head trauma for the time and events specified by Jeyra Etinn. This Terror Firma member had his skull almost completely caved in.

Shady looked over the rest of the body. There were no marks on the rest of the body. Frowning, she lifted the head. It was cold and frosted with a thin layer of ice that was quickly melting, giving the dead skin a clammy feel.

There was no bruising on the neck or sides of the face.

She closed the drawer, hoisted the undertaker into a desk chair to wake up later, and locked the door behind her when she left.

* * *

Cos's ring beeped just as Dr. Gym'll was getting ready to start off on another rant.

"I'm sorry sir, but we have to go," Rokk said hurriedly, grabbing Nemesis Kid's arm. "Thank you for your time."

The two of them met Timber Wolf, Dawnstar, and an annoyed-looking Ultra Boy out in the open square where they had landed. Dawnstar was staring into the sky.

"Star Boy, Sun Boy and the reporters will be here shortly," she said absently.

Timber Wolf was restless, shifting from foot to foot. "Can't we start? I have the trail of this mystery informant, and we need to get going _now_."

Cosmic Boy looked up and saw small dark shapes approaching. "Lead on, Timber Wolf."

* * *

Duplicate Boy stalked through the hallways of Legion HQ until he found Shrinking Violet's room. He let out a shuttering breath when he picked the right door, and slipped in quickly, closing the door firmly behind him. He just stood against the door for a second, taking it all in.

A bed, topped with a thick black blanket, the rumpled white sheets still visible from a busy morning. A desk covered with paper and a delicate personal project. A bookshelf filled with novels and nonfiction. A few pictures of a woman who was probably her mother. A closet door, open. A bathroom with the shampoo still open and a hairbrush left out. A chest of drawers for clothes.

A book on the nightstand, left hastily, and a pen near at hand.

His breath caught as he picked up her journal.

He opened it reverently, sat on the bed, and started reading.

* * *

Duplicate Boy roared in anger and flung the journal across the room. It hit the wall with a bang and fell to the ground, pages fluttering.

He got up and paced, his face twisted in rage.

So she loved the _super-genius_, did she? Loved him _so much_ she thought about him every day.

Oh, she talked about _him_ too. Talked about how the Workforce was so poorly led and how she _pitied_ the decent-seeming people on the team.

But she loved the Coluan; the cold, arrogant, _insane _world-destroyer.

_**How could she?**_

He would show her her mistake.

Duplicate Boy began to stalk out of the room before remembering the journal on the floor. He went and picked it up, placing it carefully on the nightstand; and vowed that one day _she_ would write about _him_ with the same longing she wrote about Brainiac 5.

* * *

"Uh, Jeckie?" Chameleon Boy asked. "What're you doing in here?"

"Looking at the same things you were," she informed them. "Don't bother. Jeyra's credentials all check out. Not a thing wrong that I could tell."

"But, I was so sure…" he murmured. "Oh! Hey!"

He spun to face them all. "I haven't told anyone about what I learned from the techies!"

"You were in the tech department?" Colossal Boy asked.

"Just before I ran into you," Cham told him. "I asked about the interrogation cell security as part of my cover. It turns out the wiring is really important to the whole thing. It's configured so that if the security is off, it can only be turned on by the person inside the cell; and if it's on, no one but the people in the main control room can switch it off. There're all sorts of technical back-ups and failsafes built into the system. And even when the security is off, the passive scanners pick up the movements in the cell."

Colossal Boy dived for an access console. "I was just looking at a file for that, I think… got it!"

There was a foreboding pause. "It says there were only ever _two_ people in that cell; and _one_ of them never moved."

"Print that off," Shvaughn commanded, dashing for the door. "We need to regroup."

* * *

Shadow Lass reached the crime scene just and Colossal Boy and Shvaughn Erin came barreling around the corner.

"Nura!" Gim called. "We got something!"

"I have too," Shadow Lass yelled, trying to get through the doorway at the same time as the giant.

"Hold up, you two!" the precog called back. "We've got some things in here as well."

Gim and Shady sorted themselves out just in time to let Cham and Gigi tangle themselves up in the same space. Shvaughn gave them a push and the both managed to catch themselves before they fell.

"So what did you two find?" Nura asked them, kneeling next to the other Legionnaires, who had the air of holding a conference.

"There are passive sensors in the cells even when the security system is off," Cham told her.

"And the readings picked up by those sensors during the time Jeyra Etinn was in here show that there were only ever _two_ people in the room." Colossal Boy continued. "And one of them didn't move until just before the panic button got hit."

"I examined the body," Shadow Lass said. "There's no bruising where there _should_ be if the prisoner had been grabbed and had his head smashed against the wall. But his skull is pretty much caved in."

"And we thought it through and realized that the only person with enough credibility and in the right position to facilitate any of this was Jeyra Etinn," Violet said seriously.

"But yet, somehow all her credentials check out," the Princess told them. "So how does that fit?"

"Undercover agent," Lyle said promptly. No one could really tell where he was standing. "Long-term, better trained and_ smarter_ than Lali Muldrow. Spent more time really _trying_ to get into a good position."

"So, why?" Val asked. "Why kill a teammate?"

"Because he was going to rat on them," Shadow Lass said.

Phantom Girl looked around at them all. "Let's go catch ourselves a murderess."

* * *

"Down here!" Brin called over the rings. "I've got the scent down solid."

"I have the trail as well," Dawnstar reported.

Cosmic Boy looked down again. They were flying over the slums of the city, having sheared off eastward from College Town. It reminded him too much of the mining shanties of his home planet.

Jo was scanning the area with his x-ray vision. "Haven't found anyone in particular I'd pin yet…"

"There!" Dawnstar yelled in triumph.

Everyone followed her pointed finger.

Jo switched off his x-ray vision and focused his eyes in.

"_No freakin' way_ is this happening to me," he said through gritted teeth.

"What?" Nemesis Kid asked.

"Huh?" Sun Boy just hadn't been paying attention. He was too interested in the fact that he was carrying Mirella this time around. She was, of course, still taking notes.

"_I'm_ getting this!" Jo shouted, and dived for the street. A figure far below started running.

Jo was on it before it could go a block. He rose back up high into the sky, clutching his prisoner's collar tightly.

It was a woman.

"Aw, come _on_, Jo!" she was pleading. "You know me!"

"Shut up, An," he growled. "I broke it off with you before I ever joined the Legion. And yeah, I know you. I know you well enough to not be sorry if my grip _happened _to slip and you _happened _to go 'splat' on the road."

"And this is…?" Star Boy asked, before Devlin O'Ryan could open his mouth.

"An Ryd. Former girlfriend and an absolutely _worthless_ gossipmonger and con artist of the worst type."

"You _know_ how it is, Jo!" she wheedled. "You need money, and food, and a place to stay…"

"If you had enough money to get yourself here, _An_," Ultra Boy snarled. "You had enough money to buy food and pay rent."

"Bring her down." Brin's voice came in over the rings again. "I think we all need to have a _talk_ with her."

Devlin took a picture.

"This is going to be the greatest follow-up story _ever_!"

* * *

"Ms. Etinn?" Dream Girl asked, poking her head into the back room.

The woman stood up. "Yes?" she asked uncertainly.

"I think you'll be glad to know that we've solved this case."

"Really?"

Now that she was listening for it, Nura could hear the slight note of falseness in her voice.

"Yes," she said, opening the door completely to show the two officers and the assembled Legionnaires. "You can stop _lying_ now. Doesn't that make you feel _so_ much better?"

Jeyra Etinn looked confused for a moment, then seemed to come to a realization. None of them had any warning before she blasted them all with her mind and pushed her way past. Karate Kid made a grab for her, but she blasted him again and he staggered.

"Stop her!" Gigi roared as the telepath cannoned down the stairs. Her hope she would be heard was fulfilled, but not the way she'd hoped. The officers, confused by the sudden turn of events, froze.

Shvaughn jumped the railing and landed on the ground floor with the help of her flight ring. Jeyra was halfway down the last flight of stairs before she realized the officer was coming up toward her. She half-turned to see Gigi and Gim bearing down on her from behind. She dove for the railing.

Lyle, still invisible, tripped her up. They both fell, uncoordinated, over the railing. She managed to squirm on top in the seconds before they hit the ground, getting off another quick mind blast to hinder him further. Lyle hit the ground hard, and lost his grip on the invisibility. Violet skidded to a stop to avoid tripping over him; and by the time everyone had sorted themselves out from all the yelling and the rushing, Jeyra Etinn was gone.

* * *

Everyone met up later at HQ, in the common room.

"So," a bandaged Lyle asked an irate Jo. "Was _your_ day as absolutely _wonderful _as mine?"


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"**Mindset"**

* * *

"_Thank_ _you_ for arranging this mission, Imra," Dream Girl said, flopped into the biggest chair she could find on the Legion cruiser. "I love the Terran Legionnaires dearly, but-"

"There are some days where you just can't stand it anymore," Cham put in.

"Dreaming, yes!" she agreed.

"When was the last time we did this, anyway?" Phantom Girl asked, rolling over in the air.

"Oh, years… not since before Chemical King joined," Saturn Girl said.

Shadow Lass looked around. "I wish there were more of us," she said. "But all our members seem to come from Earth or worlds seeded by Terran metahumans. It really gets to me when I stop to think about it."

"Are you suggesting we need a more diverse worldview?" Element Lad asked.

"Maybe. Maybe I'm just a little lonely."

"Lonely?" Princess Projectra said. "You have no idea. It's hard enough being a princess at home; on Earth I look just human enough for people to notice my eyes all the more."

"When you bother to show them," Tinya said, thinking of the Princess's strangely-slit red eyes. "Is that why you took to wearing that mask with your new costume?"

"I tell people it helps disorient the ones I illusion more, and that's true- but you're right as well," Projectra admitted.

"I look different enough that no one is surprised by me," Blok rumbled. "Is it really that bad?"

"I would say so," Nura said.

"At least none of the rest of you have to _pretend_," Cham grumbled. "Does anyone mind if I drop this?"

He gestured to his body.

"Not at all," Imra assured him.

"Yeah, who are we to mind a green tentacle-ly thing talking to us?" Shadow Lass asked sarcastically.

"The only thing I wonder about," Jan said. "Is why, if the Legion is supposed to promote galactic diversity, we are based on Earth with so many technically-human Legionnaires?"

"Now _there_ is a question," Imra agreed.

* * *

A group of Legionnaires were seated around the kitchen table.

"Is anyone else really worried about the fact that Terror Firma managed to get a long-term undercover agent in place with access to pretty much _any_ criminal right under everyone's noses?"

Bouncing Boy looked at Chemical King over his drink. "A little, yeah."

"And then that same organization managed to get someone into headquarters without us knowing until the very end."

"Also troubling," Dawnstar agreed. She was sitting with Wildfire.

"They also managed to make an entire royal court forget they were ever in the same room as each other."

"I think that's the worst bit," Lightning Lad shuttered.

"Definitely," Ultra Boy muttered into his coffee. Timber Wolf was baking behind him. They were killing time until something happened or Phantom Girl returned.

"Do you _live_ on coffee?" Two-thirds of Triplicate Girl asked. Her white body was in the medical wing, finishing up some new additions.

"Maybe."

"And the very fact that all this planning seems to be of the long-term sort is- _scary_," Condo continued. "How long have they been hiding from us? And what's this 'revenge' they keep talking about?"

"You're in a thinking mood, aren't you Condo?" Wildfire asked. "Are you sure that's a good idea? You usually get depressed when you think too much."

"I'm fine. This is just worrying me."

* * *

"It's so _difficult_ to deal with other people's cultural ideas sometimes." Imra was still talking. "I get that it's probably a species thing, what with us having so many technically-humans around. There's only so much open-mindedness you can have with entirely different senses and neurological wiring between people. And I have to_ listen_ to it."

"Frustrating is the name of the game in the Legion, I think," Cham said. "Like with this Terror Firma thing. Or the Workforce."

"Has anyone even seen the Workforce lately?" Elemental Lad asked. "_I _haven't heard anything about them for four months, since right before Cosmic Boy lost his control from stress and started screaming at everyone about failing."

"You know, that's a good question," Tinya said. "They used to be everywhere, getting under our feet most missions, but now-"

She gestured with her hands. " -_poof! _They're gone."

"Well,_ I'm_ glad," Nura said. "Less Atmos in my world is good thing."

"Does anyone else have the feeling there's a lot we don't know about them?" Projectra asked.

"Of _course_ there's a lot we don't know," Shady responded. "We _barely _ever see them, _then _they disappear, and not more than five or six show up at once. There's _plenty_ we don't know, even with the ones we recognized."

"I _hate_ not knowing things," Nura sighed. "But then when I _do_ know I hate it all the more. I'd just like a straight answer for once, with no confounding variables."

"If you wanted a job that gave answers, Dream Girl," Blok said. "You should have become a scientist."

* * *

"And then we never figured out who made COMPUTO turn on us. The computer is supposed to be unhackable, so where does that leave us?"

"Somewhere with no answers, Condo," Bouncy said tiredly. "_We_ have no more idea than _you _do."

He looked at his teammate, noticing he was still groggy from waking up. "I'll go ask Lyle and Violet."

* * *

"Hey, Con!" Lyle called as his boyfriend stepped through the doorway. "What's with you?"

Violet glared at him irately. "Keep it down, will you? I'm working over here."

"You don't need quiet for physics calculations, Violet. You can do that in your head. You need _real_ quiet for precisely mixing chemicals."

She muttered something and Lyle turned back to Condo, smiling brightly. "So?"

Condo told him about the questions he had been thinking of.

"Well," Lyle said thoughtfully. "_I_ don't know about the missions or the reasons any more than _you_ do, but the computer question bothers me sometimes too."

"There's no _question_ about it," Violet spoke up. "COMPUTO's unhackable by everyone but the people with access to the connected modems or the computer itself."

"Everyone but the builder," Lyle reminded her.

"I _know _that," she snapped. "How could I forget?"

Lyle rolled his eyes in Condo's direction. They'd shared a talk the day Lyle came back from his extended mission about the Situation and the new relationship dynamics between his two oldest friends in the Legion. Both agreed it was high time the scientists figured each other out.

So Condo felt bad about this next suggestion. "If we're sure it couldn't have been anyone in the Legion, then what about Brainiac 5?"

Violet glared fiercely at him. "Brainy would _never_ do that. He would _never_ try to attack us, or hurt us. Not if he was himself."

"Was he _really_ himself though, when he left?"

Violet opened her mouth, then shut it.

Lyle looked at her questioningly.

"Do we even _know_ what 'himself' is, anymore?"

* * *

"Nura?" Shadow Lass asked. "What exactly are we supposed to be doing out here?"

"It'll happen when it happens," she answered. "Vent while you can."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Tasmia told her.

"Well hey, it's good by me," Tinya said. "You know what bothers me? That everyone else's thinking is so _narrow_. People only ever bother to consider things in three dimensions physically, and _besides_ that… why shouldn't I love Brin and Jo both? Everyone already knows I go out on dates with both of them. If I'm happiest with both, why not _have _both?"

Jan spoke up. "Being apart from your people is hard; especially when no one else has the same ideas that you do. With me- for most others, change is… abhorrent. Change is a thing to be afraid of, to worry about. But change is natural, and how can anything natural be wrong?"

"It's worse when it's part of your religion," Tasmia moped, still put off with Nura's vague answer.

Jan nodded in agreement and she continued. "People off Talok are scared of the dark. They believe it hides demons and ghosts and evil things. It doesn't. It holds peace and protection and self-knowledge."

Cham groaned. "Don't get me started on self-knowledge. Other people put faces on for others all the time; so why should they freak out when I do the same?"

"It must be a psychological foible," Jeckie said. "I can make people see what I want, feel what I want- I can change memories if I tried. And people, when they know, fear me. Say they can't trust themselves around me. But I know their senses deceive them daily -I see what they cannot- and their minds remember things incorrectly, even remember wrong things, all the time. So why be scared of me when I do what they do to themselves?"

Imra snorted, and everyone turned in surprise to look at her. Her expression was bitter. "Scared of powers? You have _no_ idea. No one outside Titan knows how to _properly_ shield their minds."

"There are many differences throughout the galaxy, to be sure," Blok said after a long silence where everyone was respectfully quiet for Imra. "I dislike living in a city. There is too much concrete and steel and plastic. The components they are _made_ of fine of themselves, but altogether they choke off the planet."

Jan smiled slightly. "Homesickness," he said quietly to himself. "Has anyone else discovered the problem here?" he asked, louder. "_People fear what they do not understand._"

Nura looked around at all of them. "Well, you know what _my_ problem is?" she asked loudly, disrupting the gloomy turn she felt the conversation was about to take. "I hate knowing how my day is going to go before it happens."

* * *

"It doesn't matter," Violet said firmly. "And what about the strangeness with the duty roster when I was out with Cosmic Boy on Imsk? We never resolved _that_ either."

"I already talked with Imra about that," Lyle said. "No one in the Legion would mess with the computer."

"Dream Girl did," she retorted. "What about Nemesis Kid? It suits his personality-"

"And you're trying to blame someone you don't like._ I_ don't like this idea that Brainy could be messing with us from afar, but he really the only person who would be _capable_ of doing that."

"We don't know much about Terror Firma," Violet said. "_They_ could have a computer genius."

"The equal of Brainy? May I _remind_ you that _no one_ had ever heard of these people before?"

"All the more reason for there to be one," she told him. "_Everything_ in this galaxy goes through a computer sooner or later. If they have someone really good at that sort of thing, they could have disguised their actions for a long time."

"You're_ really_ trying to keep yourself in denial, aren't you?" Lyle asked. "Will you at least _consider_ Con's idea?"

She ignored him coldly. "I don't want to hear this."

"You can forget all about it when we leave," he wheedled.

"Fine." She stood up and pushed her chair back forcefully. "But not in here. _Your_ room, Lyle."

* * *

"See Tasmia, there's your answer," Dream Girl said. "Are you happy now?"

Shadow Lass looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean-"

The cruiser alarms went off. Everyone rushed toward the massive front window. Chameleon Boy switched back to his orange form mid-leap for the button to bring up the transmission.

It was Xolnar calling.

"Legion?" a tremulous woman called uncertainly. "He- hello?"

She let out a small shriek as the whole room trembled.

"This is the Legion," Saturn Girl said urgently. "What-"

"Terror Firma," she whispered desperately. "Terror Firma, please-"

The woman looked over her shoulder toward a pounding on the door, and ran off; pushing the button to end the transmission on her way.

* * *

"So about what Condo was saying," Jo spoke up. "He's right; that's all weird."

"Oh, now _you're_ in a thinking mood too?" Wildfire said sarcastically. "_This_ is going to end well."

"You know something?" Jo continued.

Bouncing Boy looked up blearily but determinedly at him. "No. Don't you two even _start_. It's bad enough that the entire leadership structure is out right now for something or other without waking up to find myself in charge, _again,_ and _you _two -"

"An Ryd said she needed the money when I caught her after the report in the Daily Galaxy. But she turned in that info anonymously. So the paper couldn't pay her for the tip. So who was paying her?"

No one had an answer for him. He pushed away from the table and walked out of the room, heading to pace the halls.

* * *

Jo thought.

_I can't believe that Saturn Girl _or _Andi would keep the Legion in the dark about this, if it's true. But I can see them not telling anyone if the effect would be bad. And with everyone stressing over Terror Firma and the Workforce and the team finally having pulled themselves together… I can see that causing trouble all over again. And it's not like An ever really _said_ she was making it all up._

He didn't like the way his thoughts were going.

* * *

"We need to plan first this time," Phantom Girl said firmly. The cruiser was on its way toward Xolnar, but wouldn't be there for another half hour at least. Everyone was in that testy point between emergency and action where waiting became unbearable. The Legionnaires had learned long before that the only way to cope was to distract themselves somehow.

They couldn't be everywhere all the time; but they never stopped trying.

"Gather 'round, everyone," Nura said. "Let's hear what you've got."

* * *

Lyle pulled Condo onto the bed with him, settling his boyfriend's head on his shoulder and wrapping his arms around him. Violet stood with her arms crossed by the door.

"Pull up a chair?" he asked, gesturing to a small circular table in the corner with its two chairs. He had Condo over for breakfast, some days. Dinner once, too.

She stayed standing. "Just get this over with so I can disprove you," she snarled.

"You don't have to be so _nasty_, Violet," Lyle admonished. "Go ahead, Con."

"Everyone has been talking about how much Brainiac 5 was… unsure of himself when he left. We don't know where he went or what he's doing. We do know that he lost the battle against a very nasty part of himself before he left-"

"We don't know if that even exists anymore," Violet interrupted.

"Condo is _talking_ here, Violet," Lyle pointed out. "Just let him do it. Commentary later."

"So can anyone truly say that there is no chance that he decided to… continue in that thread? He was doubting his place in life when he left, was he not?"

"_NO!_" Shrinking Violet screamed in fury. "That can't be! I can't believe that!"

"Didn't you mean, 'don't believe', Violet?" Lyle asked quietly.

"_No_," she said hotly, her voice thick. "I _can't_. You-"

She realized what she was saying and stopped. "You wouldn't understand," she insisted quietly.

"How much do you need me to?" he asked, getting up. He put his arms around her, and, amazingly, she didn't try to pull away.

"I don't want to think about this possibility either," he told her quietly. "But if we're trying to consider options, that's the best one we've got."

"He couldn't be like that." It was unclear whether she was trying to convince herself or him. "He's not like that."

"I know he's not," Lyle assured her. "But Condo has a good point."

Violet pushed away from him. "So let's say that it has been Brainy hacking the computers," she said quickly. "What do we do about it?"

"We know we can't lock him out," Lyle said. "He's too good for that, and neither of us are_ smart_ enough for that."

"The Legion could get new computers, but it would take up a lot of time to get everything running again," Condo said. "And we can't afford that, not with Terror Firma and the Workforce."

"And they'd have worse security than the computer now, so it's not like that would do us any good," Violet said bitterly.

Lyle could see how much emotion she was trying to keep under the surface. It was hurting her to think like this, he could tell.

"So we can't do anything," Violet said grimly. "Because regardless of _who_ is doing this, we aren't good enough to stop them."

* * *

The Legion cruiser finally entered the atmosphere of Xolnar.

"Just leave it on auto," Nura commanded as they prepared to leave. "It'll be fine up here and we'll need everyone."

Imra nodded her assent and the Legionnaires flew down to the planet's surface.

The town they had landed in was in ruins. Princess Projectra looked at it in distaste, remembering her capital city.

"Where are all the people?" Chameleon Boy asked in the unnatural silence.

"I don't know," Saturn Girl said. "I can't hear anyone."

Phantom Girl had a sudden, horrible thought and phased through some of the ruins. Shadow Lass watched her.

"There's no one in there," she said, coming back to the group. "No one alive, no bodies…"

Jan was looking a little sick. "Just because there are no bodies doesn't mean there aren't any dead."

Blok knelt and buried his hands in the churned-up dirt. There were big cracks down the road where the ground had split. He could hear how the earth still shook…

The ground was vibrating.

"Saturn Girl," he rumbled. "I can feel people."

"Where?" she asked urgently, motioning the others over.

He concentrated.

"This way."

* * *

The still-new Heroes of Lallor peeked over the top of some ruins.

"So, what do we do?" Life Lass asked quietly.

"Well…" Gas Girl bit her lip. "Um, well. Evolvo, what do you think?"

"Planning is hard."

"Obviously. But do you have any _ideas?_"

"No."

"But there are people we have to protect here!" Life Lass protested. "We_ have_ to have a plan."

"We can rush them!" Gas Girl exclaimed, then heard Konk's voice in her head.

_Yeah, because _that_ always works _so_ well._

"Never mind," she amended.

Evolvo looked back at the unsteady buildings behind them. Each held a small knot of people, hidden from sight.

There were only three of them against a group of terrorists known for destroying everything they saw. What sort of odds were those?

* * *

Tinya watched Imra as the Legionnaires flew in search of Blok's vibrations. The telepath wasn't scanning the ground as the others were. She was squinting into the sky, flying slightly off-course in relation to the others.

"Trade your thoughts?" she asked, flying closer.

Imra looked at her in astonishment for a moment; then seemed to remember where she was.

"If Blok feels movement, that means there should be something alive around here, but I couldn't feel anyone," she told Tinya. "Not just people, but animals or insects as well. So I'm trying to find out who's blocking me. So what about you?"

"Why would Terror Firma attack Xolnar? I mean, is there anything _here?_"

"No," Nura called. "Just the planet. Some general factories, office buildings. Regular things."

"No secret weapons installments?" Cham asked hopefully. "No revolutionary but controversial scientific organizations?"

"Nope."

"Not even an underground music industry?"

"Not at all."

Projectra dove suddenly, heading for a stand of trees.

"Jeckie!" Shadow Lass called. "JECKIE!"

She didn't answer.

Tinya and Tasmia traded a look.

"Cham, you and the girls get down there," Nura said. "You're needed."

* * *

"When she said we'd be _needed_," Tinya started complaining. "I didn't think she meant like _this_."

"At least there's only three of them. They can't cause _that_ much damage," Tasmia said, uncharacteristically uncertain.

Both looked at each other.

"Though they _have_ got a record…"

Cham just looked down the hill at the small settlement. It looked like summer homes clustered around the banks of a large lake. Three of the Workforce were huddled behind the ruins of retaining wall. Dirt spilled over the top and sides, uprooted flowers littering the ground. Chunks of masonry poked up from under piles of soil.

"I'm going down," he decided.

He switched into the form of a small rodent and scurried down through the grass.

"Cham!" Tasmia hissed. "Get _back_ here!"

He didn't hear her.

* * *

"_Someone_ has to have some sort of idea," Life Lass said desperately. "They're holed up across the lake! How are we supposed to get over there without being seen?"

"I'm a little more worried about what to do when we get there, Somi," Gas Girl admitted. "But we can do it! Evolvo, you can grow gills, right?"

"Probably," he said absently, staring at the sky above them.

"So we just get you in the lake and you jump out on the other side; and we run around either side while they're distracted!"

"Good start," said a voice from behind them. "But it needs work."

Gas Girl toppled over and landed in a dirt pile, limbs askew. "_Wha-_"

"It's just me," Cham said, holding up his hands. "Don't freak out."

"When-"

"The Legion just got here. What's up with you?"

"You would not _believe_ the last four months," Life Lass said. "Most of the Workforce went and quit 'cause Duplicate Boy is overbearing _jerk_, and then we had to get off the planet, and _then_ the ship broke down, and _then_ we got rerouted onto a ship that took us fifty-nine light-years out of our way-"

Cham opened his mouth to clarify his question by she just kept right on talking.

"-and_ then_ we ended up transferring to a ship here, and then _it_ broke down, and no one could fix it, and then we got involved in a-, in a-, anyhow, we couldn't get a ship out of here because _no one_ knew how to fix anything and _nobody _visits Xolnar a whole bunch cause they've got nothing to trade and don't need to trade with anyone for anything and then _those_ guys show up!"

She gestured frantically at a large summer home on the other side of the lake.

"That's one long streak of _really_ bad luck," Cham told her, feeling a little ignored. "But I _meant _about your planning."

"Oh," she said, chagrined.

She explained.

"Huh," Cham said. "Well, like I said, it's a good start. But we'll need the Legion for this."

"Just the ones on the hill or the ones who flew over a few minutes ago?" Evolvo asked.

Cham shook his head in amazement. "You don't miss much, do you? Just Shady and Tinya and Jeckie should be fine."

* * *

Saturn Girl probed harder with her mind, falling back to let Blok and Nura lead the way. Jan came up to fly beside her.

"Still no luck?" he asked.

"None," she sighed. "I can't-"

She fell suddenly.

Jan dove to catch her. Her eyes were unfocused and she looked stunned.

"Imra?" he asked uncertainly.

"I feel like I just flew into a wall," she moaned. "Did you know Terror Firma had a telepath?"

"Jeyra Etinn," Nura said disgustedly. "The SciPol infiltrator we busted two months ago. Remember my report about that?"

"Vaguely," Imra told her, steadying herself. "We should move. They know we're here now."

* * *

Jo backed up quickly, only seeing Shrinking Violet coming at the last minute. He caught sight of the look on her face and looked in confusion down the corridor. There wasn't anyone or anything in sight to have made her look like that.

He remembered that Lyle's room was in this hallway. He went and stuck his head in the door. "What's with Violet? She just walked by looking like someone _died_."

"For all we know, someone _could_ have," Lyle told him, lying on his bed. Condo was sitting at his feet, looking uncomfortable. "Con brought up something she didn't want to hear."

"Which would be?" Jo pulled up a chair from the small table nearby. He sat on it backwards with his arms resting on the backboard.

"Con's worried about the way things have been going with the tech lately," Lyle said. "He thinks maybe Brainy gave himself over the dark side and is messing with the computer."

"That doesn't sound like him," Jo said doubtfully.

"True, true," Lyle agreed. "But Con's got an answer for that too."

"Really?" He looked at Condo questioningly. "What's that?"

Condo fidgeted. "He changed a lot physically right before he left. We don't know if he as a person changed as well. We could run into him a year from now and not recognize him."

Jo thought for a minute. "Yeah, you're right. That could happen. Like getting brain damage. That can change your personality."

"It's not just the trauma," Condo told him nervously. "Do we _really_ know how long he was fighting with his mind? Any sort of thought process leaves a physical trace, and a person is more likely to act like they're used to acting. If he was struggling with destructive impulses since at least, um…"

"About half a year," Lyle put in.

"It could be that we let a potential maniac run free. Just because he wasn't acting like that when he left doesn't mean he didn't start later."

"The more you talk the more screwed I feel," Jo told him morosely. "So what do we do if it turns out what you just said was right?"

"I don't know," Condo admitted. "That's why I came to ask Lyle and Shrinking Violet. But she didn't want to hear about it."

"It's not you, Con," Lyle said comfortingly, sitting up. "She just feels horrible that someone she loves-"

"You have _no_ idea," Jo snorted. "You weren't here for all that."

"-could turn into something she would have to hate."

* * *

The door shook as it was pounded on from the inside.

Jeyra Etinn glared briefly at it and there was a muffled scream. "I picked up someone, Elysion. I think the Legion is here."

Elysion was pacing back and forth across the room, muttering. "The Legion again? When will they learn to get out of the way? They should _understand _what we're doing here. Why do they keep us from the revenge?"

"Who knows?" she asked flippantly. "What should we do about our guest?"

"Keep it in there," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "Call everyone together."

He looked at her, his face stretched into a mad grin. "We have _bugs _to crush."

* * *

"There are people coming," Projectra said suddenly. Cham had just finished explaining his plan.

"Okay. Change of plan," he said quickly. "Jeckie, keep them distracted, will you?"

She nodded and looked off into the trees, focusing.

He glanced over the top of the dirt-and-masonry spill. "Now!"

* * *

"Clear this up for me a little more, will you?" Jo asked. "Violet's mad because Condo was being logical and you agreed with him?"

"Pretty much," Lyle told him. "But it's a little more complicated than that."

"How can she get mad at someone for being logical?" Jo muttered under his breath. "Is the universe going mad?"

"Nothing's simple anymore," Condo sighed.

* * *

Tinya and Gas Girl ghosted through the trees, coming up on Terror Firma's hijacked summer home from the right.

"You can really do that?" Gas Girl asked, pulling herself together just enough to talk.

"Do it all the time," Tinya assured her. "Phase in, grab some wires, phase out. Completely kills the power systems."

"And me?"

"If you could knock them out, it would be helpful. And there are types of gases that can blind a person. If all else fails, you'll go in through the vents and mess with the fuse box. Just try not to get punched."

* * *

Evolvo dove into the lake, his powers forming a set of gills and fins for him as soon as he went underwater.

Cham followed him, shifting into a small, fast water creature.

They cut sleekly through the waters, scaring off the shoals of fish that had gathered in the middle of the lake to escape the commotion near the banks. Cham stopped him a few yards from the edge to talk.

"We're the distraction, remember that," he told the former Workforce member. "Stay behind me if you can. You haven't got a lot of experience and I don't want you getting hurt."

Evolvo was inclined to agree with him, but privately vowed to help somehow.

* * *

"How, exactly, am I supposed to be-" Life Lass took a gasping breath, trying to keep up with Shadow Lass. "-useful? My powers aren't very-"

Another breath.

"-strong. Or helpful."

"You just aren't thinking creatively," Shadow Lass retorted. "I remember what I heard about you. Your power is to animate anything inanimate. A house is _full_ of inanimate objects."

She put on a burst of speed that would have left Life Lass moaning if she hadn't been wheezing.

"Now, less talking," the Legionnaire commanded. "More running. Remember; you're all listening to _us_ this time."

* * *

Imra and Nura's group landed among the trees. Saturn Girl sat on the ground and closed her eyes.

She sent her mind ranging out to find the telepathic barrier. She hit it much farther away than before. It seemed to have contracted around a central point.

Her mind brushed something that left it reeling and disoriented. She pushed harder, and felt it give. Another push, and it fell.

She moved on to the barrier and struck out at it. It shook, then stabilized, pulsing briefly in recognition.

Imra knew what that meant. Her challenge had been accepted. _This_ Titanian would play by the rules Esper Lass refused to follow.

* * *

Cham burst through the front wall in the form of a giant, fierce looking herbivore. Evolvo slipped in behind him.

Elysion and some assembled Terror Firma members reacted instantly. The ground started to shake, the air started moving in strange ways, and fire flared up in a corner.

Just in time for everything in the room to short out, and total darkness to fall.

Cham switched immediately to a night predator and attacked. Evolvo waited until his eyes adapted to seeing in infrared and watched his back.

A splintering noise somewhere in the room testified to the arrival of Shadow Lass.

Gas Girl, remembering what Phantom Girl had told her, sublimated herself into a thick, choking gas.

A sudden, unexpected gust of wind blew her into all corners of the room.

"Tal," Life Lass wheezed, still winded from her dash around the lake and now choking on her friend. "Think _creatively!_"

Gas Girl pondered on that for a moment, and changed herself into xenon. She quickly sank near to floor level. Consolidating herself, she spilled around the feet of a terrorist and turned into helium.

The terrorist felt the onrush of air but couldn't react fast enough. Gas Girl changed herself into carbon dioxide when she was a face height. He passed out.

Cackling with glee in her head, the Hero of Lallor moved on.

* * *

Evolvo saw an enemy coming up behind Chameleon Boy. He was too busy with someone else to notice.

The young man took a deep breath and jumped between the two of them.

The terrorist paused for a moment, long enough for Evolvo's powers to finish kicking in. He punched her in the jaw.

He didn't see Cham's ears flick back, noting his help.

* * *

Shadow Lass was honing in on Elysion when the wall next to her blew outward. Knocked off her feet, she tumbled into Kynda.

The fire-wielding Terror Firma ignited fireballs in her hands, bringing them toward the Legionnaire.

She lashed out with her foot and sent the terrorist tumbling. Kynda rolled to her feet and shot off more fire.

Tasmia ducked and called on her shadows to wrap around the girl. She struggled for a moment, then burned them away in a searing flash of light and heat.

Tasmia immediately moved to the side, knowing that a blinded target like herself was easy to hit.

Kynda had gotten the same idea first. Shadow Lass ran right into her. Her vision had cleared enough to see another flaming sphere headed for her.

The air moved and it went out. Gas Girl, taking her cue from watching Phantom Girl's performances in battle, solidified long enough to punch her in the face. She fell, knocked out.

Gas Girl spun. "I feel so, so-" she said delightedly.

"Effective?" Tasmia asked sardonically, rising to her feet. "That's the feel of accomplishment, there."

* * *

Imra reached out her mental arms to Jeyra. She reached back. If they had been standing in physical space, they would be grasping each other's forearms.

Imra braced herself and pushed. Jeyra pushed back. It was like wrestling, in its own way. The first person to hit the ground lost.

Round one.

* * *

Evolvo materialized at Life Lass's size.

"Somi."

She jumped and lost control of the drapes she had been animating. It didn't bother her too much, though she resented the interruption. It wasn't really as if she could see anything to attack properly in Shadow Lass's projected darkness.

"I have an idea."

* * *

The prisoner Jeyra had mind-blasted dashed through the trees. She stumbled on roots, jumped over thorny bushes, and ran through thin branches that whipped at her face. But she kept going. The Legion was here, and the people who had been helping. She couldn't let the terrorists she_ knew _were coming get to them.

* * *

Jeckie squeezed her eyes shut tighter when pain lanced through her head as she tried to sit up. Something had been prodding at the illusion she had put over the forest, one she had crafted to keep the Terror Firma members rushing through the woods going in circles. Then the thing had pushed them over completely, knocking her out as the illusion unraveled against her will.

She settled for opening her eyes without sitting up.

There were a _lot_ of angry terrorists surrounding her, a menacing green glow coming from behind them.

* * *

Shadow Lass looked out into the darkness. Nura, Blok, and Jan had arrived, and had melded in with the other fighting Legionnaires with the ease of long practice. They fought easily, only slightly hampered by the less-experienced Heroes of Lallor.

There were three people she didn't see. One she _knew_ was here, one she _thought _was here, and one shehoped _wasn't _here.

An earth-mover, a telepath, and a teleporter.

Finding the stairs, she sprinted upwards. She found Jeyra Etinn sitting cross-legged on the landing, eyes closed.

She wouldn't be worthy to call herself Talokian if she couldn't recognize a duel on sight, even if it didn't involve weapons or fists.

She went back down.

"Can you get rid of the darkness?" Life Lass whispered when she set foot on the ground floor. "I can't see anything to animate and Evolvo has an idea."

Shadow Lass dispelled the darkness as she stalked out the front door, searching for the man who made the cracks in the street.

* * *

Imra gave a little under Jeyra's constant pressure. The other telepath pushed hard, trying to throw her off. Imra knelt slightly and pushed, overbalancing her opponent and sending her sprawling.

Jeyra pulled herself up and started round two of the duel.

Imra sent her mind questing at Jeyra's own, trying to read her thoughts. Jeyra was good at this; better than Esper Lass was. The Legionnaire couldn't get any reading of her. She felt the terrorist probing at her own mind and drew her walls tighter around her.

She knew most people's shielding was worse when they were trying to see into other's minds, and took her chance.

She ran into a thick mental block and heard Jeyra in her mind, repeating her thoughts to her.

_:…in my head. I lost.: _Imra shoved Jeyra and her mocking voice out of her mind and dropped her shielding in preparation for round three.

* * *

The menacing green glow shot out and wrapped around one of the terrorists threatening Jeckie. It grabbed a mid-sized tree and yanked it out of the ground, swatting at the others.

One giant alien spun and was blocked from her line of sight by an equally large alien standing over her.

Jeckie took advantage of the distraction to put the illusion of crumbling ground on him. He flailed his arms, trying to regain the balance and support he was convinced he had lost.

She stood and fought to ignore the dizziness and nausea that swamped her.

There was a great splintering as the giant alien she had lost sight of missed her target and sunk her fist into the tree. There was a peal of derisive laughter at her folly. The alien snarled and swung her injured hand backwards in a wide sweep.

There was a crunch as she hit someone's face.

The green light changed to red in all of an instant. The alien's opponent stood unsteadily, blood pouring out of her shattered nose.

The young woman glared at her attacker, eyes defiant. Her shoulder-length brown hair hung around her face, matted with mud and sweat and drying blood. She lashed out with the red light, tangling the other alien in a hedge of thick bushes.

Jeckie decided immediately that she _liked _this girl.

* * *

"Elysion!"

He stole a quick glance behind him to see Shadow Lass hard on his heels; dashing around the lake just as he had done. She was too far away to see clearly, but he knew her face would be furious.

He sneered to himself and stopped, waiting for her to catch up.

The Legionnaire thought she was onto his tactics. She stopped about ten yards away, pacing around him in a wide circle; waiting for him to make a move.

He wouldn't play by her rules. This was _his_ fight.

_Jeyra,_ he called.

* * *

"So, what you're saying is that he's pretty much evil, dead, or in hiding?" Jo asked, trying to clarify.

"Yeah," Lyle said sourly. "Fun all around, isn't it?"

* * *

Imra waited for Jeyra to drop her shields, but she never did.

She felt the other telepath leave.

Furious at this breach of etiquette, Imra searched for her mind.

* * *

"Hold your breath," Life Lass whispered to Jan. He had noticed her making the rounds of all the other Legionnaires, and wanted to know what she had to say. "And don't do anything."

He did what she said, wondering.

Gas Girl consolidated herself on the landing overlooking the large front room of the house.

"Now, Tal!" Life Lass yelled.

She jumped over the railing, sublimating into tear gas in an instant.

Terror Firma coughed and wept and swore, rushing for clear air.

* * *

_:Elysion?: _Jeyra asked.

_Now, Jeyra._

The world went white for the Legionnaires and their allies.

* * *

"Time!" Cham called, astonished to find himself still standing and in the same position as before. The only sign that Terror Firma had ever been in the area was the destruction.

Life Lass fished out a clock and reported.

Cham checked his ring log.

They had been out almost an hour.

"What?" Nura said incredulously, having also checked her ring. "How-?"

"The same way that Orando never remembered Terror Firma before it was too late," Jan told her.

* * *

The first thought Imra had upon reawakening was _that wasn't Jeyra Etinn._

But now she knew the feel of Terror Firma's secret weapon.

She would be able to find it again.

* * *

Jeckie shook her head to clear it. The young woman she had been fighting with was leaning over with her hands on her knees to support her.

"Princess Projectra of Orando and the Legion," Jeckie said.

Her partner looked up. "Dhori Aahngraisho," she said, breathing slightly harder than usual and her voice distorted by a broken nose.

_Dori Aandraison,_ Jeckie translated in her mind. "Your power- that was drawn from the Pathophotological Spectrum, wasn't it?"

Dori's eyes became guarded. "Ih'm noht a Lantern Chorps mhehmber, igh skwear."

"Didn't say you were," Jeckie pointed out. "Though there _was_ a good reason the Lantern Corps were banned. Though I thought they could only manage to master one color per person."

She walked over. "I've never heard of anyone able to access _more_ than one."

"Iht's a ghcift," Dori retorted. "'snhot lihke igh ghet toh ushe ight mucgch, gthoh. Mhaks mghy mood gho ahll fungy."

"Tell me," Jeckie said conspiratorially. "How do you feel about leaving Xolnar?"

* * *

"Well, _you_ all clean up nicely," Nura told the Heroes of Lallor, hands on her hips.

"You _really_ think so?" Gas Girl asked excitedly.

"We had advice," Life Lass pointed out.

"But you were smart enough to follow it," Cham said. "Puts you ahead of a _lot_ of people we've met."

"Well, I think that they did a fairly good job by themselves," Imra announced, coming out of the trees. "The people were safely hidden and mostly calm when we arrived, remember?"

"They were, weren't they?" Nura said thoughtfully. "Seems like you all picked up Rule One pretty fast: civilians come first."

The Heroes of Lallor beamed at each other.

"Experience counts for quite a bit, you know," Shadow Lass reminded everyone, disgruntled at her lost opportunity to fight.

"Yeah, we _know_, Shady," Cham muttered.

"You mean, _you_ know," she muttered back.

"Leave off, you two," Imra told them, then whispered something to Blok. He nodded.

Jan looked at them questioningly. "What?"

Imra raised her eyebrows. "All in favor of taking the Heroes of Lallor home?"

The vote was a unanimous 'yes'.

* * *

Jeckie and Dori walked out of the trees. The Legionnaire looked up at the sky and squinted, then activated her ring.

"Imra?" she asked. "Come give us a pick-up, will you?"

"Us?" came her voice.

"I have someone here that I'm sure the Subs would _love _to meet."


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"**Amnesia"**

* * *

Shvaughn Erin was on Monitor Duty, contemplating her situation in life.

She knew she loved Element Lad; and she knew he loved her. But she didn't know what to do about that. There were some things she needed to tell him before she got into a serious relationship.

But she had never told anyone before.

The console flashed and she pulled herself out of her self-reflection to answer it.

She listened for a minute, then stopped the speakers politely.

"Excuse me for a moment," she told them.

She stood up and went in search of someone with more seniority.

* * *

"Lightning Lad?"

He looked up from his game of cards with Bouncing Boy. "Yeah, Erin?"

"What do you do if Colu calls?"

"Huh." He put his hand down and leaned back in his chair. "No idea. They've never done that."

"Well, what if they did?" she persisted. "What would you do?"

"No idea," Garth admitted. "I guess it would depend on what they wanted."

"They want us to come and investigate why some of their citizens are experiencing sudden debilitating memory loss."

"Well, that's just a strange situation. I guess you'd- wait. Is this actually _happening?_"

"Of course," Shvaughn said. "Did you think I'd get up from Monitor Duty to bother you with possibilities?"

He knocked over his chair trying to run out the door.

* * *

"Lu!" he yelled into his ring, pelting down the hallways toward the Monitor Room.

"What is it, Garth?"she asked from somewhere in the building.

"Erin says Colu called about something or other with memory loss," he told her. "I'm going to talk to them. The SciPol left whoever-it- was hanging."

He stopped in front of the door and straightened himself out, taking a deep breath.

_"What?" _she asked in astonishment; after a long, blank silence.

"I dunno either," he said, slightly panicky. "Just get somebody _smarter _than me down here, okay?"

_"But the only other seven people here right now are all _busy_!" _she screamed at him.

He cut her off. Taking a deep breath, Garth opened the door.

"Hello!" He tried to sound cheerful. It was hard when faced with the impassive, blank faces on the screen. All had at least shifted into their more human-looking form for the conversation, but it was just unsettling. All looked just enough like Brainy that he had to concentrate on not cracking a joke. He noticed vaguely that none of them had his purple eyes, though.

"Our member on Monitor Duty before was a _little_ unclear," he told them. "Would you mind restating the problem?"

The Coluans looked at him with what he imagined was scorn. "The High Council has noted a disturbing trend of late," one said. "A small fraction of the Citizens of Colu have been slowly losing their memories, all mental functions becoming nonexistent. They have been quarantined from the Hivemind."

"This situation is intolerable," said another. "Colu has not been able to solve this crisis in months of attempts. We expect the Legion promptly."

The transmission shut off.

"Aw, man," Garth muttered, and took another deep breath.

"_VIOLET! LYLE!_"

* * *

"All right, _somebody _has to know _something_ about Colu. Something _new_," Garth told them all desperately. Triplicate Girl had made everyone crowd around the table he and Bouncy had recently been playing cards at.

Everyone looked at Violet and Lyle.

"Don't look at us," Lyle said, holding up his hands in defense. "We don't know any more about the place than any of you. It's not like Brainy was ever really talkative about his planet."

"Or talkative at all, really," Garth said. "Right." Something occurred to him. "_Shady!_ You're like, the President of Talok, right? Didn't you have to learn about other cultures and stuff?"

"No," she told him. "That's why I'm here. To learn how the rest of the galaxy works."

"Yeah. Okay," he said, feeling defeated. "So we know Coluans are robots, they've got a group thinky thing going on, they've got a inherited memory what-not, and they're the smartest people in the known galaxy. Anybody? Anybody at all have something to add?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Jan?" he asked hopefully. "Any advice?"

Element Lad thought about every interaction he had ever had with Brainiac 5. "Be formal, respectful, and polite."

Garth slumped, staring dejectedly at the floor. "Imra and Nura should _not _have left me in charge today."

* * *

The cruiser ride to Colu was awkwardly quiet. No one wanted to mention the last time the Legion had been involved with Colu; but it was all anyone could think about.

* * *

Tasmia watched as the cruiser entered Coluan airspace. The planet itself was rather beautiful from space, equally split between land and water. Huge cities, visible from even this far distance, covered vast tracks of the available land. Despite this fact, there were large wilderness areas. She couldn't imagine why there was that much wild space; even the least-densely populated planets usually had only small preserves and parks still standing as testament to an earlier age. The only exceptions were popular vacation destinations, the Rimworlds, and a few, select –Tasmia's nose wrinkled in distaste- so-called _barbarian_ planets like Durla and Talok Vlll.

She was puzzled by the way that the atmosphere seemed to be an odd magenta color. She had thought Colu was rather similar to Earth as far as climate and physical properties went. The planet was only fourth from the sun, after all.

Suddenly all the proximity alarms went off. Lyle appeared out of nowhere and dived for the cruiser controls. The ship pulled up short, the floor rocking a bit despite the internal gravity gyroscopes.

Coordinates appeared on the front screen as the rest of the Legionnaires dashed into the room.

"What was _that?_" asked Bouncy. "I don't see anything big enough to trip the alarms; and it's not like we're close enough to the planet to crash yet!"

Shvaughn was peering at the planet critically. "You see that purple glow around the planet? That's not Colu's atmosphere, _that_ is a planetary forcefield."

"You sure?" Garth asked doubtfully.

"Of course," she said. "There are stories about some of the older planets having forcefields this large during the Great Wars. If anyone would have that sort of technology; wouldn't Colu?"

"Makes sense," Violet said. "Now, how do we get around it?"

"We ask them to take it down," Lyle said impishly, sitting in the pilot's seat. "Shouldn't be too hard, right? It's not like we're _attacking_ them or anything."

Everyone with the exception of Shadow Lass and Shvaughn got very quiet. Lyle looked a little confused until he realized he'd touched upon That Subject.

"And they've invited us, anyway," he said, trying to lighten the mood.

* * *

It took awhile to actually get to the planet's surface; despite the coordinates they'd been sent. The forcefield had conveniently opened up soon after they had finished puzzling out what they had almost collided with; but the directions were clearly meant for a more advanced processor than the Legion Cruiser possessed.

"Are they _trying_ to get in our way?" Garth grumbled as they landed in the hangar they'd been led to. When no one answered, he continued. "Okay, so how are we going to do this? Who wants to do what?"

"What do you mean?" Shvaughn asked, puzzled.

"Well, me and Bouncy are technically in charge," he said. "But that doesn't mean it's really a _good idea_ for us to really lead anybody on this."

"I vote Shady's in charge," Lyle said from his seat.

Garth just looked at him.

"She's a head of state," the younger man pointed out. "If we're going to follow Jan's advice and be formal, Tasmia should be in charge."

"And what if I don't _want_ to deal with inscrutable people likely to disdainful of my position and intellect?" she asked bitingly.

"I think that's a _great_ idea, Lyle," Garth said. "Shady, you're in charge."

Jan was looking out the front window. "Our escort is here."

* * *

Shadow Lass led the way out of the cruiser to the small delegation below. She stopped a few feet from them and clasped her hands in front of her, legs slightly apart, dredging up every bit of her unfortunately sparse diplomatic training.

"I assume we are to be shown to the necessary accommodations," she stated; remembering her minutes-long lesson on the proper way to ask without asking.

The closest Coluan, draped in a robe of black and blue, hands tucked into his sleeves, spoke to her first. "We will provide your scientist with access to the Library of Metaire. All knowledge you should need to resolve this unfortunate situation should be contained within."

He nodded to another of the group, wearing the same colors. "Lexe Tanl will guide you."

The Coluan woman looked Tasmia in the eyes, her expression unreadable. "Shadow Champion," she acknowledged; before turning and heading for the door. The Legionnaires followed her.

* * *

Violet tried not to stare at the capital city as they walked its streets. The buildings were far taller than even the ones she was used to in New Metropolis, something she hadn't thought she'd ever see. The streets were paved with the smoothest stone she had ever seen, its slightly silver sheen matching the metal of the towers.

It was not what she had expected. The buildings seemed to have been designed, not simply built- and designed with an eye to understated elegance. The city was not utilitarian, as she had thought it might be. It was functional, yes; and that was clearly the priority, but that didn't seem to stop anyone from trying to take an aesthetic delight in it.

The only thing she had expected was the attention to detail. Every bit of the city was clearly planned to within centimeters of its construction.

* * *

Condo was trying not to stare, as well, but for different reasons. The rest of the inhabitants of Colu hadn't bothered to change their forms to reflect the visiting Legionnaires. It was vastly, wildly different than any place he'd ever been.

He wondered if they ever had trouble getting in through the doors.

* * *

Eventually the Legion reached a massive building, subtle designs adorning every inch of the outside.

"This is the Library of Metaire," their guide told them, her face still impassive. "A citizen on the library staff will show you to the proper location inside."

Tasmia nodded briefly in acknowledgement and led the group into the Library.

* * *

Lyle looked around at the main lobby of the Library. It was small, and not nearly as imposing as he would have thought for such as massive building. It just seemed to be there to let people in through the doors that ringed the walls.

There was a discrete noise from behind him.

Lyle turned and got a nasty shock.

The Coluan who he assumed was supposed to meet them looked unnervingly like Brainy. He was the same height, his hair was the same color, and we wore the same blank expression Lyle was so used to dealing with.

Mentally he told himself to focus and internalize the fact that this Coluan really looked nothing like his old friend. This Coluan's body armor was matte-black, the markings only slightly different in color. The family symbol on his chest was entirely different as well.

"Hi," Lyle said faintly.

"I am Vrax Gozzl," their guide said formally. "I will show you to the appropriate materials."

His voice. Lyle concentrated on the voice. That wasn't anything similar.

Vrax showed them to a door across the room. The door opened, and they all stepped through.

* * *

Condo was confused. Why were they in a glass box?

"This does not look like a library," Bouncy said with trepidation.

Vrax touched a console in the wall and a thin beam of blue light sprang up between him and the Legion.

"Um," Garth said.

"Step through the reader," he told them. "The library is not calibrated for non-Coluans. The central processor needs to be adapted to your biological signatures.

Garth and Bouncy looked at each other to see if anyone understood what had just been said.

Shvaughn stepped through first; Jan followed close behind.

Condo and Lyle went through together, and Tasmia shot a look at the so-called 'leaders' and followed Violet. Lu grabbed Bouncy and pulled him through.

Suddenly, Garth realized he was _not _looking very good. He shook himself and went to join the rest of his team.

* * *

Tasmia watched Vrax finish calibrating the computer and stepped toward the doors. They swooshed open as she approached.

Triplicate Girl had to pull up suddenly to avoid running into her. She circled around to Shadow Lass's front and raised her eyebrows.

Tasmia was staring at the library shelves with rapture in her eyes.

"Look at that, Luornu," she said. "Look at all that knowledge."

She looked at Vrax. "I'm completely connected to the Library systems, aren't I?"

He nodded once and opened his mouth, but she was already dashing off into the shelves.

There went the plan.

* * *

Vrax led them over to a large table. He passed his hand over it and the top lit up in a soft blue glow like the scanner in the glass room had.

He waved a hand vaguely at a shelf and a glass cub separated itself from its holder and floated over to him. He grabbed it out of the air and stuck it into a slot cut into the center of the tabletop. A matrix of light and symbols appeared, seeming suspended in the inches-thick material of the table.

Garth peered at it. Vrax gestured him toward the table.

He stepped forward as the Coluan stepped away. The symbols changed, shifting into Interlac.

"_'I'm nobody! Who are you?'_" he read. "_'Are you nobody too?'_"

He stopped and looked at Vrax in confusion.

"_'Then_ _there's a pair of us- don't tell! They'll banish us, you know'_," the Coluan continued where Garth had left off. "First Stanza of _'I'm nobody! Who are you?'_, by Emily Dickinson; a 19th Century poet from your own ancestral planet."

"Why are we reading ancient poetry?" Bouncy asked.

"The 19th Century is hardly ancient by galactic standards," Vrax informed him. "I am simply demonstrating how to use the reading tables."

He reached over and pulled the cube out of the slot. The table went blank again and the blue glow returned.

"The medical and physiological texts are labeled as such. I am at your disposal."

The Coluan went and sat himself down in a small table tucked into a corner, nowhere near where he had set them up. Garth noted he didn't have to use a chair, simply seating himself cross-legged on thin air.

The Legionnaires exchanged a look.

* * *

Lyle, Violet, and Triplicate Girl were firmly ensconced in their studies; and Condo was feeling unneeded.

Shvaughn and Jan had wandered off together into the shelves to see if there was anything else that could be useful; or even just of interest. Garth and Bouncy were sitting near Vrax despondently, trying to find something to occupy them.

He decided to take a look around.

His walk took him around the perimeter of the shelves. He found more doors in the wall, leading to places unknown.

Condo picked one and walked through.

* * *

"'_And, being of such a constituency, the upper regions of the Coluan frontal cortex have the capacity to process, store, encode, synthesize, and memorize information at a rate far exceeding the vast majority of sentient life encountered and matching or exceeding many digital encoding devices and methods developed in the entirety of sufficiently advanced galactic societies'_."

"Stick it over here," Trips told him. "That might be useful later."

The three of them had worked through most of the materials they had gathered; sorting them as they browsed through. They had found a few which were clearly irrelevant, and a few which seemed to contain exactly the information they were looking for. Most of the texts so far were full of moderately helpful information.

"'_The framework of the mind is fundamentally indifferent from anything of an original chemically and electrically based constitution. Psychologically, the mental and emotional needs are essentially the same as they were in the original physical form'_," Violet recited. "_'The basic complications are inherently apparent as the disparities between the two states are irreconcilable and vast. Therefore, alternate means of satisfying psychological urges and needs in lieu of systems evolved and designed to accommodate such necessities are clearly needed to avert the eventual psychotic deterioration of individuals and society as a whole'_. It's not really clear what they're talking about, but it has nothing to do with what we're trying to accomplish."

"So why did you bring it up?" Lyle asked.

Violet's eyes flicked over to look at Vrax for a moment, still sitting at his out-of-the way table. She lowered her voice so it wouldn't carry. "It might be… _interesting_."

Trips looked up silently and tapped the table a few times. She reached over discretely and pulled the cube from Violet and stuck into a small pile of only a few other cubes.

They would look at _those _later.

* * *

Garth was bored out of his mind. Other people were enjoying themselves here; even Condo had managed to find something to do.

"So," he asked Bouncy quietly. "What do you think?"

"About what?"

He motioned at his co-leader to tone down his voice. "_This,_" he replied; gesturing to indicate the whole area.

"Not like I thought," Bouncy said. "But it's not like I was really expecting anything."

"Really? I had all sorts of ideas."

"Maybe just that it wouldn't look so… I dunno." He shrugged. "You know how the planet looked when we were landing? There was all that natural space?"

Garth nodded.

"Coluans are robots. What do they need with trees and stuff? Wouldn't cities be better for them?"

"Maybe they like looking at it, or something. How should I know what these crazy people do?"

Bouncy pointed over Garth's shoulder with an apprehensive look on his face.

Garth spun and looked up at Vrax standing over him.

* * *

Vrax could _not_ understand these people the High Council had told him to guide. They kept their feelings and their intentions all over their faces, no matter who was around. They didn't seem to think about what they said; or even think at all.

He couldn't understand how even such a mystery as Brainiac 5 could have stood living with them.

Clearly, there was only one course of action; even if it wasn't particularly desirable_ or _civil.

* * *

Garth stood up quickly and backed up a few steps, then stopped and crossed his arms; trying to look defiant.

The Coluan seemed to be having an argument with himself. His face twitched and contorted slightly.

Vrax made a frustrated noise and ducked his head, eyes closed.

When he looked up, his face was no longer composed.

"Excuse me for being entirely discourteous," he burst out, looking pained. "But are all off-worlders so _rude?_"

"_What?_" Garth asked, entirely thrown.

"I wouldn't ask but I'm going as part of a delegation to Krypton shortly to begin terraforming operations and I don't know if I could stand living anywhere but here if everyone elsewhere acts like the nine of you."

"Whoa; _back up,_" Garth said, holding up his hands. "_We're_ rude? Who walked off and ignored us all after he said he was 'at our disposal'? Who _ordered_ us to show up here and help people who have _never _been anything but ungrateful and cold to us? Who have never even _tried _to act friendly?"

Vrax's face fell further; the pained look changed into one of complete confusion. "But we don't _act_ like that!"

Lyle and the others at the table looked up from their research.

"Yeah, you do," Garth said, glaring. "And then _you_ go and say _we're_ rude!"

Bouncy looked from the angry Legionnaire to the bewildered Coluan.

"I think we're having a cultural misunderstanding here."

* * *

The door Condo had chosen led to another library. It didn't seem to be any different than the one he had just left, even down to the doors in the walls.

He kept going through likely-looking doors until he came to a wide hallway. It seemed deserted, but not unused. There were no doors that he could see, but the hallway came to sharp turns to either side of him.

He picked the left-hand way and kept walking.

It led him to a more populated area; and he moved off to the side of the corridor to avoid walking near the few Coluans who were using the same route. None of them tried to stop him; though Condo caught one he passed looking at him quizzically before -he? she?- realized the Legionnaire had seen.

Eventually he came to a wide set of doors at the end of a different hallway than the one he had started in. People were coming and going, but he just watched for a little while before following someone in.

There were Coluans in the large room he entered, hooked up to computers. None seemed quite put together, and there was an abundance of screens running technical-looking information and what were _probably_ updates everywhere.

Other Coluans were –_tending _to the ones hooked to the computers. Condo wandered around, observing; and concluded that he had inadvertently found a hospital.

* * *

Duplicate Boy sat straight up in the darkness and banged his head on the hold ceiling.

He cursed and kicked the dim bulk next to him. "Get up, Atmos!"

The other man rolled over to face the wall. "Shut up."

"You fell asleep, imbecile!"

"So did you."

"I did not!" he snapped. "The Legion landed already! The engine isn't running anymore!"

"So?" Atmos pulled arm over his face. "Why should I care?"

"They were going to Colu! Who _knows_ how long it's been since the cruiser landed!"

"Oh, like _your_ plan was a work a genius." Atmos levered himself up. "What were you going to do again? Sneak up on Invisible Kid and copy his powers?"

"And just how else were we supposed to _accomplish _anything?"

"By getting invited."

Duplicate Boy grabbed his collar and shoved him up against the wall. The metal echoed with a bang.

"We would be _invited_ if the Legion hadn't been discrediting us!" he hissed. "We would be _respected_ if people could follow _my _orders instead of coming up with their _own_ ideas! We would be _effective_ if most of the team hadn't run off chasing idealism in the _real_ world!"

Atmos snorted derisively. "Can't have been_ too_ hard a job. Because we were doing_ such _a good job of that first by ourselves."

He got his head banged against the metal plating for his troubles.

Atmos reached for Duplicate Boy in rage.

They both broke apart, covering their eyes in pain, when the light flared up. Inferno glared sullenly at both of them over her handful of fire.

"Let's get out of here," Duplicate Boy growled. "Blow the hatch, Atmos."

* * *

Garth was still glaring at Vrax when Triplicate Girl walked over.

"Leave him be, hothead," she said, getting between him and the Coluan.

She turned to Vrax. "I think you'd better explain what you mean."

Vrax sighed and tried to sort out his thoughts. "Where do I start?"

"Well," Lu said. "How about you explain what you're supposed to do when you meet someone?"

"A friend or a stranger, and a stranger you are expected to talk with socially or for business?" he asked immediately.

"Um… you're meeting someone for the first time."

He seemed to be on firmer ground now. "A Coluan or-"

"A Coluan," she interrupted. "Is saying 'hello' really this complicated?"

"Complicated?" Vrax asked. "It's not complicated."

"Sounds that way," Garth muttered.

Lu looked at Vrax meaningfully. The Coluan began talking.

"It depends on the ranking of the person in question. If the person is higher in ranking than you, then you bow in direct proportion to the ratio of difference between you and the other person. If you are the one of higher rank, than you politely acknowledge the other person after they bow. If you happen to be of the same rank, the person who initiates the contact greets the other first."

"How do you determine rank?" Violet asked piercingly, appearing from behind the group. Lyle followed closely.

"By intelligence." Vrax's tone clearly stated that doing it any other way was insanity.

"There's got to be a 'but' in there somewhere," Lyle said.

"The ones on the High Council outrank everyone," Vrax admitted. "They are, by default, the most intelligent or the most skilled in their respective fields. I say 'or' because intelligence and mastery are not always synonymous."

There were some raised eyebrows at that.

"Even then, though, if a person is of significantly high rank, they always greet Council Members as equals."

"What's 'significantly high rank'?" Triplicate Girl asked at the same time Bouncing Boy asked "How can you tell if someone outranks you?"

Vrax ignored Lu's question in favor of Bouncy's. "The color," he said, indicating his body armor. "The color tells what level you are."

"So-"

He anticipated the question. "The minimum intelligence in any Coluan is eight. The eighth level is divided into quarters; maroon, brown, gold, and dark green. The ninth and tenth levels are divided in half; they go white, gray, black, and blue."

"So you're kind of high up?" Lyle hazarded.

"Only slightly above average," Vrax said modestly.

"See, our way is a lot simpler," Bouncy said. "You can just 'hello' to everybody and add a title like professor or senator or whatever if you need to be formal."

"With anyone?" Vrax asked, astonished. "But how can anyone tell if you respect them if you just say the same thing every time?"

"I'm getting the feeling respect is a big deal around here," Lyle said.

"Of course it is. How are you supposed to know if another is worth your while if you can't tell if they respect you? And how is anyone else supposed to be expected to respect you if you don't show proper deference for them?"

"How do you get anything _done_ on this planet?" Lu asked, exasperated. "You must be so steeped in custom."

Vrax shook his head. "You only do that with people you don't know well. If you do know them, the bowing is not required in a non-formal situation. And if you plan on having further interaction with a person, and it occurs within a reasonable amount of time from the first meeting, you don't have to be formal even with someone you don't know. That would just waste time."

Violet had a thoughtful look on her face. "So, with a proper application of extrapolation; Brainiac 5 is actually rather high on the social scale here, isn't he?"

"Very much so." The Coluan was unexpectedly silent after that remark. They all stood around in a slightly awkward silence.

"I know that I said I was at your disposal," he said carefully. "But I am not sure just how much so I'm allowed to _be_."

Garth muttered something unpleasant about politics and was graced with a small smile from Vrax.

* * *

Shadow Lass ambled through the shelves, wondering at how the labels on the cubes changed from Coluan to Interlac as she passed by. She had already found some promising sociological information on a few of the more insular cultures.

There was just so much _here_.

* * *

Condo peered at the readouts on a screen, but they made no more sense.

A loud crash made him spin around.

One of the attendant Coluans had fallen to the floor in a heap, eyes and expression even blanker than usual.

He debated with himself for a moment and then stopped one of the other attendants.

"Excuse me," he said quietly. "What just happened?"

"Colu has lost another citizen to sudden mental failure," the woman told him. "Such cases must be quarantined from the Hivemind, though-"

She looked around furtively. He wondered at her behavior, so different from the others he'd met that day; then noticed the faint signs of strain.

"- it does not seem to stop it spreading. We cannot determine how it spreads, if not through mental linkage."

"Physical touch?"

"It's much the same, for us," she said, eyes flicking worriedly toward the fallen attendant. "There is no real sensation in physical touch. The Hivemind facilitates that. These people, the ones with no minds, separate from the rest- they cannot feel."

The other Coluans had gotten their collapsed colleague hooked up to the machines. "And now we must find another to take his place, and I am not sure anyone will take that risk."

"I will," Condo said.

The woman looked at him.

"I'm a Legionnaire," he explained shyly. "This is what we do."

She smiled gratefully at him.

"Except- I'm not quite sure what I need to do."

* * *

Shvaughn walked with Jan through the library, listening to him talk. She was still thinking about what she had to say, but still couldn't figure it out.

She caught a flash of navy blue through the shelves.

She stopped. "Shadow Lass?"

The other Legionnaire stuck her head around the shelves. "Hey there. Having fun?"

Jan smiled at her. "I think so."

Shvaughn shrugged. "What about you?"

"Oh, there's so much here!" she said. "So little time to get through it all."

"Could you _ever_ get through it all?" Shvaughn asked, eyeing the sheer length of the building, and the height of the ceiling.

"I'd love to try," Tasmia said wistfully. "But I don't think they'd let me."

* * *

"You could tell us about this though, right?" Shrinking Violet asked belligerently.

Vrax shifted uncomfortably. "I- suppose."

"So?" Lyle asked.

The Coluan looked away and back. "I am not sure exactly how this will be taken," he admitted. "As it seems that you have so very different ideas about things than we do here. I think that you may-"

"Just say it please," Trips said.

"What happened with Brainiac 5 and his family was entirely legal by Coluan societal standards."

"_Whaaaat?_" exclaimed Bouncy.

Vrax sighed. "-do something like that."

He glanced at the Legion's faces and continued. "As the most intelligent person in the known universe and a citizen of Colu –however odd and atypical that citizenship may be- he reserves a near-irrevocable right to the premier seat on the High Council, should he choose to claim that right. As such, the incident in discussion was, while not by any stretch of mind courteous or polite, an entirely lawful action."

Garth shook his head. "I do not understand you people at _all_."

Vrax shrugged as if to say there wasn't much he could do about that. "I believe that I should find the others I am supposed to have watch over."

"Wait," Violet said. "So Brainy is like the- the royalty of Colu?"

"Colu has no royalty, as such," Vrax told her. "But the sentiment seems about right; if you take into consideration that royalty, unlike Brainiac 5, must choose _not_ to rule."

He strode off into the shelves.

"Well," Lyle said, leaning back against a table. "_That_ was interesting."

Triplicate Girl nodded weakly.

"But now we've got a new question," he continued. "Why would somebody who likes to boss people around so much leave the _one_ place he was guaranteed a top position?"

* * *

Condo followed the woman –Riah- around as she finished showing him how to check up on the afflicted Coluans.

She left him with his first charges and went back to her own business.

He looked at all the readouts on the screen attached to his first patient and compared it to the chart Riah had given him for how everything was supposed to look. He made notes about the differences, feeling self-conscious doing it in Interlac when everything else was in Coluan even though he'd been assured everyone could read what it said.

Condo glanced at the one he was supposed to be tending. Could they really not feel physical sensations?

He reached out and touched his cheek.

The inside of Condo's head roared and his stomach flipped over in the way that told him he was losing control of his powers again.

_Oh no, oh no, oh please, not here, not now-_

He saw the Coluan's eyes move. His patient blinked.

"Um-" he squeaked. "Um; _Riah!_"

* * *

Shadow Lass turned a corner and almost ran straight into Vrax. She pulled herself together to greet him properly, noticing that he had one of the information cubes.

He glanced over her shoulder and saw Jan and Shvaughn.

"I believe," he told Jan. "That I have something for you."

Vrax led them all to one of the doors in the library walls and opened it for them. They stepped inside and he inserted the cube into a slot in the wall.

Jan gasped. Trom's capital sprang up before him, in full imitation of life.

Shvaughn looked at his face and smiled. She took his hand and they walked off together.

"That was unprecedented," Tasmia told Vrax, trying to sound neutral.

"There are things I feel would help those searching for answers to help," he told her. "But there would be people- unenthused with my mentioning it to the ones actually doing the research."

"I take it these people can make life difficult for you."

"Perhaps."

"So what did you want to say?"

Vrax looked around. "Do you know how Coluans came to have bodies as they are now?"

Tasmia decided she didn't have to control her face anymore and raised an eyebrow.

"No. Does anyone? I will add, though; that most of the galaxy seems to be under the impression that you've_ always_ been that way."

He sat down on the floor and she took a seat across from him.

"Colu has fought in every major war since the beginning of galactic civilizations. However, the Second Galactic War marked the height of Coluan military technology. Building on the research and information gathered from the Brainiacs, Colu developed cybernetic battlesuits and mental transference technology. By the end of the War, a vast majority of the population of Colu had been downloaded into these battlesuits to protect the fighters."

"So you really _were_ built for war," Tasmia said thoughtfully.

"Yes," Vrax confirmed. "Now, the battlesuits were obviously nothing like physical bodies, but it was determined that were quite superior to carbon-based forms. So, the entirety of the Coluan population was downloaded. Of course, we then developed an entirely _new_ set of problems."

"Like?"

"I believe that your scientists have already found the text that pertains to this. Coluan physiology and psychology depend heavily on the sense of touch, but the battlesuits had no such thing. So the top scientists of the time recalibrated the communications link between the suits to serve as the Hivemind, and so facilitate both the lost sense of touch and planetary communications."

"Ancestral Shadows. The things that happen in war."

Vrax looked meaningfully at the projection they sat in. Tasmia winced inside.

"The foundation of the galactic power balance has always rested on twelve planets," he said to no one in particular. "Colu, Dryad, Zerox, Mars, Titan, Krypton, Bgtzl, Orando, Trom, Khundia, Durla, and Talok. Mars is gone. Trom is gone. Krypton was gone. Too many of the others remain in isolation or desolation. The Legion has done a job far exceeding the expectations of anyone. Krypton has been restored; but Dryad is an Earth colony, Titan and Bgtzl are UP Worlds, Khundia thinks only of conquest, Durla and Talok have no power, Zerox is out of touch, and Colu is detested. Only Orando has retained any of its past glory."

Tasmia looked around slyly. "Are you trying to tell me something?"

He lowered his voice. "Colu and Krypton are back in galactic affairs, with the greatest military and scientific potential seen since before the formation of the United Planets. Khundia moves closer to the United Planets every year. Orando holds most of the United Planet's loans and debt. Those four planets are the hearts of the old Great Empires. Be prepared."

* * *

Duplicate Boy and Atmos pelted down the streets of Metaire, pursued by what were _probably _police.

They could be regular citizens, but Atmos wasn't going to stop to ask.

Both ducked into the first open doorway they saw, but were spotted by an entirely _new_ group of Coluans.

They kept running, turning corners in the hallways as they came.

* * *

The Coluan patient moved and the entire room surged toward Condo. Riah forced her way through.

"What happened," she demanded.

"I- I felt my powers going out of control like they do sometimes and he; um- he woke up."

The entire room erupted into discussion.

He had a sinking feeling in his heart as his mind flicked back in time to a place where scientists with medical equipment talked about his case without talking about _him_.

Riah cleared a path through the group and beckoned him over. A few of the quieter Coluans detached themselves to watch.

"Show me what you did," she told him.

Once again, Condo touched the patient's cheek; his head roared and his stomach flipped.

The result was exactly the same.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be able to do this."

Riah gestured at the rest of the room. "But you _can_."

* * *

Tasmia was pulled back to alertness when Vrax's head whipped around as if he had heard someone shout his name.

"There are intruders in the city," he said quickly. "And your teammate, Chemical King? He is waking the quarantined citizens."

"Condo is what?" she asked, before the rest of the sentence sunk in.

"**JAN!**"

* * *

The hospital room had gotten very crowded, what with the arrival of the Legion and more Coluans. Condo thought they were probably there just to look.

Lyle pushed his way through to his boyfriend, grabbing his arms. "How-"

"My powers acted up, and I was helping here, and _something_ happened, and- I don't know."

He hugged Condo. "Well, whatever happened; great job. Problem fixed."

* * *

Garth glanced at the doors as they opened, then took a double take.

"No, no, no, no, _no_. Not all of _you_ again."

Duplicate Boy and Atmos were dangling in the air, held easily by some Coluans.

Triplicate Girl made a face.

"Do you know these intruders?" one of the Coluans asked.

"Not personally. But they've been stalking us ever since the- uh- um- well, That Thing; you remember-" Garth tried to rush past that part. "- trying to do our job and just messing up whatever was going on."

* * *

Lyle was distracted by the captured Workforce members; and Condo took the opportunity to try and get out of the main body of the crowd.

Someone else had the same idea. An unfamiliar man, clearly not Coluan or Legion, was shoving his way through the crowd, trying to get to the door.

The Coluans he pushed past didn't seem to notice.

"Excuse me," he said. "You missed someone."

Bouncy looked at him worriedly. "Uh, Condo, no they didn't."

"Yes they did," the other Legionnaire insisted. "He's right there."

Bouncy looked where he was pointing. "I think your powers are still acting up, there's nobody there. Why don't you go back to the cruiser?"

"There is so someone. He's not even moving; he's just standing there."

"Condo, there's _no one there_," Violet told him.

* * *

"Yes," Condo insisted. "I can see him."

The man was standing perfectly still, a look of intense concentration on his face.

Garth walked over right next to the man. "Seriously, cut it out, there's no one-"

He brushed the man. The Legionnaire's face went blank for a moment, then he shook his head.

His eyes widened and he looked up in shock. "Why are we on Colu?"

The man started to move.

"He is so, there!" Condo said again. "I can _feel _him; he's messing with your body chemistry!"

He lunged for the stranger. His head reeled and his stomach churned once more.

* * *

Tasmia was starting to get very worried about Condo when Garth seemed to lose his mind.

Then Condo seemed to have lost his mind too, but where they had all seen thin air-

-a strange man was standing there now, with Condo gripping his upper arm.

She reached for the ceremonial knife tucked into the back of her belt.

* * *

"And _you _are?" Violet asked.

The man smiled, looking friendly. "I've been caught, haven't I? Praetor Lemnos."

He extended his hand. Violet stuck hers on her hips. Lemnos shrugged.

"This is the part where I say what I'm doing, isn't it?"

He looked around at everyone in the room. "Fine, I confess. I've been messing with people's minds all across the galaxy and I'm here to contaminate the Hivemind with a form of memory loss so complete all higher mental functions shut down; thereby debilitating the smartest people in the galaxy."

The whole room was silent.

"Wait a minute," Garth said. "You're being serious?"

"Of course. I'm _always_ serious."

He seized Lemnos. "You sound like this is normal."

"Oh, it is," he said. "For _me_. I do this _all _the time. Doesn't matter, of course, since everyone forgets I was there once I leave."

"_You,_" Lyle pointed angrily on him. "_You_. It was _you_ on Orando."

Lemnos nodded happily. "Yep."

"_You're_ the leader of Terror Firma," Violet said.

"You better believe it!" He held up his hands, and they all saw the button he held. "Meet my team in full, why don't you?"

* * *

Tasmia fully expected chaos to break loose in the room when Terror Firma appeared.

Instead, the Coluans started shooting.

She pushed Garth and Lu down to the ground.

"Now we know _why_ they never asked us for help before," Garth grumbled. "_Clearly_, they can handle themselves _just_ fine."

* * *

Violet was about to shrink and help out when someone grabbed her from behind.

"There you are, you little pest," Elysion hissed in her ear. "I've got something for you."

He slapped something against her chest and let her go.

She grabbed the purple cloth packet before it could fall. It opened in her hand, revealing a lock of blonde hair.

Another hand fell on her shoulder.

"I suppose you could take _some_ comfort in knowing he tried," Lemnos told her.

"But we-" she said without thinking.

"You _really_ think he'd stop? Someone like him? Oh, he wouldn't do anything with _you_, he was too guilt-ridden. I'm sure you remember, I can't _imagine_ he could have hid it."

Lemnos sighed, seemingly resigned. "But he just wouldn't stop _heroing_. We caught him, in the end. It wasn't _hard_. He was more of thinker than a fighter, remember? The only thing that kept him out of trouble before was the fact he was a walking armory."

He bit his lip thoughtfully. "I probably could have found someone better than An Ryd to break the news to the galaxy, but what can you do?"

She could have avoided Elysion's grasp if her mind hadn't been running in circles.

* * *

Duplicate Boy saw Elysion lift Shrinking Violet off the ground.

He ran for the man, brushing a giant of an alien who was busy pulling a chunk of the wall out for a shield. His punch knocked Elysion flying. Violet tumbled to the floor.

He pulled her up. "Why didn't you move?"

She showed him the cloth packet. "They said Brainy-"

His anger flared.

"So let it go!" he yelled, knocking the packet out of her hand. The hair scattered everywhere. "He's _dead_, then, and he's _been_ dead a long time! Pay attention to the ones who're _alive_!"

Violet started to go for the spilled packet but he grabbed her arms and spun her towards him. "Pay attention to _me_!"

She tried to shrink, and he shrunk with her.

* * *

The sudden assault snapped Violet's focus back. She tried to shrink and slip out of his grasp, as she had so many times before in battle.

But she got smaller, and Duplicate Boy went with her.

She wasted but one second on panicked confusion. She kicked his knee backwards and heard it crack. He let go of one of her arms in pain and she punched him in the gut. He let go completely and she reversed her shrinkage, kicking him again on the way up.

Duplicate Boy, smaller than normal, staggered off.

He ran straight into one of the terrorists.

* * *

Lemnos grabbed Elysion and called to the rest of his team.

"All together, everyone! We've done what we came for!"

He waved to the room. "_Au revoir_, Legion!"

Terror Firma vanished in their customary flash of light.

No one noticed Duplicate Boy following them, disappearing in an identical flash.

* * *

Violet scrabbled at the floor, trying to gather up the spilled hair. Tasmia knelt next to her.

"What are you-"

Shadow Lass saw her tear-streaked face and an alarm went off in her head.

"What-"

The younger girl handed her the few hairs she had managed to grab. Tasmia's eyes widened.

"Lyle. _Lyle._"

* * *

Triplicate Girl looked at Lyle. "That sounded like the old Earth language-"

"Until we meet again," he said into the silence of the room.

"_LYLE. Get over here._"


	13. Chapter 12

****

Chapter 12

"**Titan"**

* * *

"Salu, I'm _sorry_," Lyle said, holding his arms out. "But we just can't tell. We don't have any of his DNA to compare. All we can tell is that the hair Lemnos gave us isn't human."

Violet hunched up even more in her seat, wrapping her arms around herself.

"And it's not like we'd even know what Coluan DNA would look like, anyway."

"That's not _good_ enough," she said quietly. "That's just _not _good enough."

"It's the best we can do," he said sadly, sitting on the arm of her chair. He rested a hand on her hair.

"Well, you can be a _little _happy, at least," he told her, trying to joke. "You've proved xenobiochemistry _can't_ solve everything."

"Not in the mood, Norg," she told him. Her voice resigned and with none of her usual sharpness.

"It's not like we'd ever make it together, anyway," Lyle said melodramatically. "You, a beautiful woman pining after lost love; I, a happily-partnered many with an estranged family-"

"Shut up." She sniffed; and he could hear the slight note of despair in her tone.

He smiled tiredly at her even though he knew she couldn't see.

"I've got to go report to Imra," he told Violet. "We'll both be in her office if you want to talk to someone."

* * *

Saturn Girl looked at his face.

"We're back where we started, aren't we," she stated.

"Yeah," Lyle sighed. He flopped into a chair and ran a hand through his hair.

"I can tell you if it isn't human, but I have no way to know if it's Coluan and it's absolutely _impossible _to tell if it's Brainy's or not."

"Conclusion: we know less than nothing," Imra said, resting her chin in her hands.

"Actually-"

She raised an eyebrow.

"I couldn't tell Violet this," he said seriously. "But the DNA doesn't match _anything_ in the computers. It _could _be because whoever the hair belongs to has a very mixed-species heritage or because the sample is damaged somehow. The thing is that most of the DNA matches _something_, but all the parts different things. It… well, it points to being unidentified alien."

Imra pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I don't think I _dare_ tell anyone about this."

"Personally, I'm holding out for the possibility that Brainy is amazingly, ridiculously, _frustratingly _good at hiding," Lyle told her. "It's a possibility that keeps getting less and less likely, but it keeps me going."

Imra sighed. "I'm going to have to ask you not to tell anyone else about this, Lyle. Low morale is not something we need right now. Go to bed. You've been up all day."

* * *

Cos looked up from his drink. Violet walked into the kitchen.

"You look like death," Nemesis Kid told her, sitting at a table strewn with open food packages. Rokk silently kicked out a chair.

"Lyle can't match the DNA," she said, collapsing into the chair. "But I saw the readouts. He's not telling me everything. The sample doesn't completely match any known species; but don't know what Coluan DNA looks like."

She stared at the table. "Its- There's no other good answer- I think it's probably-"

Her eyes closed. "_'But he wouldn't stop heroing!'_ That's what Lemnos said. You remember what he was like."

The men were silent. Sun Boy sighed, and threw an arm over her shoulder.

"Yeah, I do," he told her solemnly. "Look, I know it won't really_ help_, but- do you want something to eat? I've pulled out all the stops here. We've got Swiss chocolate, fine cheeses, exotic fruit- whatever, really."

"What are you drinking?" Violet asked abruptly.

Sun Boy handed her the bottle.

"Just don't tell Timber Wolf. He cooks with this stuff."

"He cooks with_ all_ of this. You raided the pantry for the fancy ingredients. Give me a cup, will you?"

Dirk filled her cup for her.

"What are you all doing down here, anyway?" she asked.

"Same as you," Cos told her, taking a swing of his drink. "Maybe if we hadn't said what we did-"

_And maybe if I had said something._

Salu took her first drink.

* * *

Brin got up in the morning to cook breakfast and found the unlikeliest people out cold around the table, half his pantry lying in ruins.

Sun Boy he could see doing this sort of thing; But Nemesis Kid or Shrinking Violet? Not likely. And he _never _would have bet on Cosmic Boy.

He picked up the bottle and looked down the neck.

He poked Sun Boy until he woke up.

"You know this was my _only_ bottle?"

"S'why we were drinking it."

"You do know how _expensive_ this stuff is, right?"

He saw his teammates pained expression; and saw the way he was trying to avoid the light.

Brin sighed. "Wake everybody up and go and see Trips, will you?"

* * *

Lu went in to check on the medical wing and found the four unlikeliest people spread out on cots. She put her hands on her hips and stood over Cosmic Boy.

"Rokk," she said loudly.

He moved his arm off his forehead to look at her. "What?"

"_What?_ _You're_ the one the one taking up space in my work area and_ you're_ asking 'what'?"

"Clearly. Look, Lu, I feel horrible right now. Can you just say what you need to say?"

"You_ must_ be feeling horrible. Usually you'd demand I talk to you in detail."

He waited.

"What did you _do_ to yourself?"

"We ate our way through Timber Wolf's supply of ingredients for gourmet food."

She muttered unflattering things under her breath and looked at the other three Legionnaires. Sun Boy looked vaguely conscious; but Violet and Nemesis Kid were asleep.

Lu sighed and looked back at him. "You're all off-duty," she told him sternly. "Don't try to get out of it. I'm making _sure_ Imra knows."

* * *

Phantom Girl came down for breakfast just to find Timber Wolf standing in what looked like the aftereffects of a natural disaster.

"Did I sleep through a bomb going off, or something?" Lightning Lad asked, yawning a bit.

"NO, you just slept through Cos and Violet and Hart and Dirk eating the most expensive things they could get their hands on."

Tinya looked shocked. "They did this?"

"No way," Garth said. "Rokk would never do that."

* * *

Lyle decided he had walked in on the conversation at a bad time.

"So is there going to be breakfast?" he tried to ask casually.

Tinya shot him a look. "What, you're not worried about Violet?"

"Why should we be worried about Violet?" Imra asked, walking in.

Brin gestured to the kitchen.

Concern crossed her face. "_Violet_ did this?"

"She had help," Lu said dryly. They turned to look at her. "I've got Cos and Hart and Dirk down in the medbay right along with her. You'd better give them medical leave, Imra. They're not going to be good for much for a day or so."

"Rokk needs it," Imra told her. "Now, is breakfast going to get cooked or are we just going to grab something?"

"We could _try_ to cook something…" Garth said doubtfully.

Brin shook his head. "It's not happening. Not in_ this_ mess."

* * *

Trips was eyeing Lyle. IF she was any judge of character, he was trying just a little too hard to seem unconcerned.

And she'd known him for years.

"Lyle, this whole thing was about Brainy, wasn't it?" she asked quietly.

He jumped and looked at her, eyes wide and startled. He opened his mouth to say something Trips wasn't going to believe.

There was a soft gasp and a thump. Everyone whirled.

Saturn Girl had fallen to the floor, landing on her tailbone.

"Imra?" Garth dropped to his knees next to her and cradled her face in his hands. "_Imra?_ Imra; talk to me!"

She shuddered all over and seemed to be coming out of a trance. Something shifted in the mood of the room.

Imra spoke with her mind and her voice at the same time. The effect was eerie, like an echo heard at the same time it was spoken.

"Jancel?"_:Jancel?: _"What happened?"_:What happened?:_

Lu covered her ears to try and block out the strange harmonics in the air- no, not in the air, she realized; when covering her ears didn't work. In her _mind._

No one heard the reply, but they could tell when Imra did. She shook her head and the strange feeling disappeared.

She grabbed Garth's arm and hauled herself up. "We need to go to Titan. I- I'm not really sure _what_, but something's happened."

* * *

_Salu dreamed._

_Brainy sat crouched behind a clump of greenery, looking out. The landscape was barren, the soil dusty and red. There were voices coming from somewhere nearby. She couldn't tell what they said. Suddenly, a hand shot through the bushes and grabbed Brainy by his collar._

_The scene shifted, and Elysion sneered down at him. "Well, well, look at this. Caught myself a little spy, haven't I?"_

_Shadowy forms gathered around menacingly. _

"_You just couldn't stop, could you?" he asked, leering. Brainy's eyes were wide with fear and trepidation. Elysion grabbed his chin. _

_Lemnos come up behind Brainy and took his face in both hands, forcing his head back. _

"_Oh, don't worry," he purred. "It won't hurt after a while."_

_He flashed one of his wide, disarmingly charming smiles. "We'll tell your friends what happened. They deserve to know, don't you think?"_

_The others closed in._

* * *

Sun Boy woke to quiet noises of terror. He looked over and saw Shrinking Violet jerking in her sleep, muttering a little.

He listened closely.

"_Please no, please no, please stop…"_

He got up and touched her shoulder. Her eyes snapped open and she gasped. There were tears in her eyes.

"Violet?" he asked quietly. "Hey, what were you dreaming about?"

She glared at him and then seemed to think better of it. "What might've happened with- well, you know." She pulled the cot's thin sheet up over her head.

Dirk considered his options. "You know what works really well for negativity?" he said to no one in particular. "Aromatherapy baths. Turn the hot water up all the way, turn the lights down, light some scented candles. Put in as many bubbles as you can, and sink down in the water. Works wonders, I swear."

"Like I have all that stuff lying around in my rooms," Violet said, still under the sheet.

"I've got it in mine."

She whipped the sheet off her face and fixed him with an enraged look.

"Sorry, sorry!" Dirk exclaimed. "I didn't mean it like that. I_ meant_ you could have some, if you wanted."

Her expression softened. "I just might take you up on that."

"I was hoping you would."

* * *

Lightning Lad sat across from Saturn Girl in the cruiser, leaning forward worriedly.

"How can you not know what happened? Aren't you _always_ supposed to know what happens?"

"I'm being blocked," she said quietly, distracted. "Or someone is messing with my head, and I can't tell who. I just know something big happened. Something _Legion_-style-big."

* * *

Hart sat up on his cot and checked the clock. Cos was pacing, as usual, but his step lacked the force it usually did. Dirk was sitting on the edge of another cot, talking to Violet; who was still lying on hers.

His head throbbed. "Where's Triplicate Girl?"

"She left," Cos told him, still moving. "She and the rest of the Legionnaires here left on a mission."

"She didn't happen to leave anything for massive headaches, did she?"

Cos flicked a hand and a small tin flew over to him. "In there."

Violet eyed him. "Shouldn't you be doing something to burn off that energy?"

Rokk stopped and turned, heading for the door. "I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me."

She swung herself out of bed. "I'm coming too."

Dirk stood. "Don't forget me."

Hart pocketed the tin and followed, deciding he'd have better luck finding a water glass in the kitchen than in the medical bay.

* * *

Imra poked at the part of her mind that had felt the disturbance, and felt resistance. What _was _that? It wasn't a mental block, either hers or someone else's. She kept prodding at it but felt nothing.

There shouldn't just be _nothing_.

* * *

The ramp from the ship touched the ground of Titan, and Phantom Girl looked around. The buildings were elegant in a flowing way; but there was a strange buzzing noise in the air. She shook her head, thinking it might be left over from entering the atmosphere or having the engines turned on, but it didn't go away.

Timber Wolf came up next to her, his ears flicking irritably.

"There's this buzzing," he told her when he saw her looking.

"I know. Me too."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really? It's quiet for_ me_, you shouldn't be able to hear it."

Tinya shrugged.

Lightning Lad stuck his head in between the two. "So what do we do now?"

"You left Imra?" Brin asked. "You've been glued to her all trip."

"Lu's with her," he said absently. "Who're they?"

The other two looked down the ramp. A tall brown-haired man had somehow managed to get onto the landing strip, and an equally tall blonde woman was with him.

Imra and Lu came up behind them. Imra gasped and pushed them all aside, running down the ramp. She had to jump to wrap her arms around the woman's neck, but she did it anyway. The woman hugged her back.

Lu shrugged and followed her. Garth took the direct route and jumped off the side, floating to the ground. Tinya and Brin came at their own pace.

Garth looked up at the man. "And you are…?"

"Professor Tilden Vndaar," the man said, bowing slightly.

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to bow back, so he settled for a simple "hi".

_:Garth, come over here.:_

He took a step towards Imra and she detached herself from the woman and turned to face him, keeping one hand on the woman's upper arm.

"Garth, this is my sister Jancel."

Jancel smiled at him. _:Hello.:_

He jumped a bit at the unexpected voice in his head. There was a brief flash of confusion, concern, and worry- all bundled into one-, then he felt the second presence retreat.

Jancel opened her mouth to speak, and a strange dry noise came out. She cleared her throat and tried again. Her speech was clumsy.

"I'm su-sorry; we du-don't speak ow-out loud much here."

"I can tell," he said. "I was just surprised, is all. If you want to talk in my head, go for it. Your sister does it all the time."

"I need to…" she paused and concentrated. "Practice. I'll get bu-better. Whut are you do-ing here, sister? I felt you com-ing, but you would-n't talk."

"_Something_ happened, Jancel. Something big enough to need the Legion, but it's something I can't figure out. I looked in my head, but it feels like someone's blocking me."

"_Blocking_ you?" Professor Vndaar asked sharply. Garth noticed he didn't seem to have any problem speaking. "Imra, are you sure-"

"I know that it's not supposed to be possible, Professor Vndaar; but it wasn't supposed to be possible for a less-powerful telepath to shut down the mind of a stronger one. Yet it happened."

Vndaar looked at the other Legionnaires. "Even if this isn't a matter for the Legion, Imra; this is a matter for _me_. Come."

* * *

Violet stuck her bare hands back in the soapy water and tried a mental exercise. She thought of her problems and her worries being scrubbed away just as she was scouring the dirty dishes.

It didn't work.

She stuck the cleaned dish into the other basin. Cos picked it up, washing the soap off. He reached for the towel and almost grabbed one of his gloves, lying discarded on the counter.

"Looking for this?" Nemesis Kid asked, holding up the towel. "It almost fell on my head."

He was on his knees, scrubbing the floor with a vengeance. The kitchen tiles were cleaner than they had been in months, and shone slightly with water.

"Move your foot, will you?"

Cos obliged, balancing on one foot while Hart attacked the tiles he'd exposed.

There was a loud thump and a bang and Dirk saying something unpleasant. Violet looked over. He'd slipped on a particularly damp patch and landed on his tailbone. He stood up carefully and picked up the trashcan that had gotten knocked over.

"You better not have spilled anything," Hart said, annoyed. "I just cleaned that."

"Couldn't you have mopped it up? I'm trying to finish getting the mess off the counters."

"Should've done it before I got that part of the floor. I'll have to scrub it again."

They kept at it as Violet finished cleaning the last of her dishes and emptied the basin. She scooted around Cos, balancing tentatively on the newly-cleaned spot, and picked some of the dried dishes up to put away. The silverware floated out of their holders and flew towards their drawer. Cos waved a hand and it opened, the silverware falling into the correct places. The drawer closed by itself.

Violet had to fly herself up a few inches to reach the shelf for the dishes. Dirk and Hart seemed to have had come to some sort of agreement by the time she'd finished. At least, they were putting their cleaning supplies away and not arguing anymore.

"Well, at least we'll have one good thing going for us when Wolf gets back," Sun Boy commented. "We cleaned up his kitchen."

Hart's eyes flickered guiltily to the pantry doors.

Violet had a flash of inspiration.

"We should replace the food, too. At least some of it. What did we eat last night, anyway?"

"Nothing but the best," Dirk told her. "I've ordered foods that use some of that stuff at restaurants-"

"On one of your dates, I'm sure." Hart was apparently feeling a little better, if he was needling people.

Dirk, one who would usually rise to the occasion, ignored him. "We must have eaten- I don't even want to _think_ about how much we would've spent at one of those places."

"Not all of it, then. Just some of it," Violet said. "We can make a pool."

_Maybe if we get out of the building, it'll get better._

Cos's expression twisted. He seemed to be contemplating the state of his finances.

Hart noticed. "You don't put anything in. I'm fairly certain no one's forgotten that speech you gave."

* * *

Imra and Professor Vndaar walked ahead of the group, leaving Jancel to walk with the Legionnaires.

Tinya decided to take her chances and talk with Imra's older sister.

"So what do you do here, Jancel?"

"I- I work at the universh- _university_." Jancel got a look of concentration on her face, and started to enunciate her syllables with care. "I'm a research assistant for the history professor."

"Really? What do you research?"

"The profess-sor has been caught up in recent e-events. He has been having me research the old times, before the Great Wars."

Tinya pitched her voice lower. "The days of the Empires?"

Jancel nodded. "He is i-intrigued by the way the galaxy has been shifting, since the Legion."

"Some days I wonder about it, too."

* * *

Dirk was picking the last shopping bag up when he caught sight of a familiar head of hair. He darted over and touched the woman's shoulder.

Mirella Tao turned around. "Dirk! What are you doing here?"

He held up the bag. "Shopping. Myself and some others completely cleaned out the fancy parts of the pantry yesterday."

"Oh, are they here too?" She looked around.

"Hey, leave it alone, Mirella. They're off-duty."

"I am too," she pointed out. "Just wanted to know who was here. Did you want to say something?"

"Just hi. And- ah-"

She raised an eyebrow. "You were going to ask for another date, weren't you?"

"Of course!" He recovered gallantly. "How could I see you and not ask you out again?"

"You aren't listening to him, are you?" Hart asked suspiciously, appearing suddenly. "And why are you talking to a reporter?"

"Off-duty," Mirella said again. "Not taking notes."

"You don't have to take notes to remember things."

Cos had tagged along for the trip, even though the others had refused to let him pay for anything. Now he drifted over.

"Do you have something you're doing, S- Dirk?"

"Maybe, if the lady will permit me," he told him slyly. "Why, did you want to come along?"

Cos actually brightened up. "Depends."

* * *

The group reached a low building, with a half-circle door. A sign above it proclaimed the building to be Symradel's University.

"Symradel?" Brin asked under his breath.

"Goddess of Titan and Saturn," Imra told him, falling back to her teammates. "Also of the mind, telepathy, understanding, and control. All the powerful telepaths, or the ones who need help with control, are sent here."

"That can't be all they do."

"It's a university. They have other areas of study, but it's most known for the telepathic aspect."

A little knot of annoyance emanating from behind her caught her attention. She turned her head and caught sight of Lyle.

"I can feel you over here," she told him. "What's wrong?"

He looked at her, slightly confused. "Don't you hear that buzzing noise? It's getting to me."

"Buzzing?"

"I hear it too," Trips complained.

Brin and Tinya nodded in agreement.

Now the Titanians looked confused.

"_Buzzing?_" Jancel asked herself.

Imra thought. She tried to ignore the spiking levels of mental activity in the Legionnaires, and the dimmer but still noticeable multi-faceted awareness of the natives; and hit on the problem.

She reached out and shielded her friend's minds.

"It's gone!" Trips exclaimed.

Imra smiled at her. "That's the background noise of Titan you were hearing."

"The what?" Phantom Girl asked.

"The background noise," she said again. "The leakage from the combined shielded minds of every telepath on this planet. You get such a large concentration of power that even non-telepaths can sense it."

Lyle had a revelation. "And mental shielding makes it stop. Thanks, Imra."

She nodded in acknowledgement.

* * *

Someone new answered the door at the Sub's headquarters.

Cos searched his memory. "Dori? From the Xolnar mission?"

The young woman nodded enthusiastically. "Could you thank the princess for me, when you see her again? I don't know how to talk to her."

"You could show up at our HQ," he told her. "The Subs are always welcome. Is Ly- Night Girl here?"

Dori waved them in. "It's been fun, so far. I'm still trying to sort myself out, but life on Earth is so much better than life on Xolnar."

"Glad to hear it."

There was an impressed whistle from nearby. "It can't be. You're taking a day off? Voluntarily?"

Fire Lad emerged from an open door. "You've got be slipping. Twice in almost two years? Lydda must be growing on you."

"Actually-"

"_Hey Lydda!_" he yelled. "_Guess who showed up? He brought friends!_"

There was the sound of running footsteps and Night Girl tackled Cos in a joyful hug. "You look horrible, as usually. What have you been doing to yourself, Rokk?"

"I helped eat the entire stock of fancy kitchen ingredients last night," he told her, returning the hug. "And then got put on medical leave for eating myself sick."

She shifted and slung an arm around his shoulder. "I'm ruining you, aren't I?"

"He needs it," Sun Boy told her. "He's here to ask you out on a date."

"Dirk," he growled under his breath.

"A double date, even. I think he's planning to attaching himself to mine with Mirella, here."

"What's going on?" a stuffed-nose voice asked. "We heard Staq yelling."

Infectious Lass and Chlorophyll Kid had showed up, crowding the hallway a bit.

"Guess who?" Fire Lad said, gesturing. "Lydda's going out on a date, by the way."

"Did _you _have to ask, or did he walk _all_ the way here to ask you?" Infectious Lass asked impertinently.

"Sun Boy asked for him."

Infectious Lass shook her head at Cos. "Didn't we already talk about this? I'm _sure_ we talked about this."

"We did," he said, a little embarrassed.

* * *

Professor Vndaar escorted Imra into the University, leaving her sisters and teammates behind. He led her to one of the many small rooms used by the people in the building when they needed a private, shielded space. It reminded Imra of her secret room in Legion HQ.

They both took a seat on the bare floor, and she felt the professor raising his own shields around the room.

She started to help and heard him in her mind.

_:Not this time, Imra. You need to have all your concentration on searching in your mind.:_

She silently conceded and waited for him to finish. When she felt him in her head again, she wordlessly brought up her memory of the incident that had led her to bring the Legion to Titan.

_She was listening to her teammates talk about what had happened with Cosmic Boy._

The memory was overlaid with all the emotional, sensory, and mental perceptions she had felt. Vndaar kept a special watch on those.

_She wasn't paying any particular attention to what was being said, instead focusing on the Legionnaires in the medical bay. They seemed mostly fine- full of lingering guilt and sorrow, but she could sense they were better than they had been._

_All but Violet. There was a pain and regret there deeper than the others, and Imra knew from experience it was the sort that wasn't going to go away anytime soon. She made a mental note to go and talk to her later. _

_Suddenly, something from far, far off seized her attention, and her mind turned fully, automatically, to the disturbance. Her mind flew off Earth, swooping past the stars and out into the endless darkness of space. She grabbed on to- something- before the world turned upside-down and inside-out all at once; and she suddenly found herself on the floor, the slight pain eclipsed by the stunning occurrence._

_She was vaguely aware of Garth dropping to the floor in front of her, calling her name. It seemed as if she felt his worry and fear from a long way off. The disturbance disappeared, and she realized her mind was in Titan._

_Her mind searched out, instinctively, the one person on Titan who she could always call on._

_Jancel? What happened?_

_She thought she might have spoken out loud, as well. She felt the thoughts and feelings of her teammates clearly; and realized her shields were completely down. It was only her training that kept their minds from being completely overloaded with psychic information._

_She could feel the combined mentality of Titan turn towards her mind, a light in a world of moths. Jancel reached out to her. She didn't have to say anything, just touch her mind; and Imra knew Jancel had no idea what she was talking about. _

_She shook herself and turned her attention back to her friends. Garth was still kneeling in front of her, and she could still feel his emotions. She closed her shields again. _

_She grabbed Garth's arm and hauled herself up. _

"_We need to go to Titan. I- I'm not really sure what, but something's happened."_

* * *

"Did you have a place in mind?" Mirella asked.

Dirk grinned widely and whispered something in her ear.

"Really? After all this?" she gestured at the shopping bags.

"It's a date," he told her confidently; then leaned over.

"I'm paying," he told Cos quietly.

Cos looked away quickly. "Are you coming?" he asked Hart.

Nemesis Kid shrugged. "I could."

"I'm coming too," Infectious Lass announced, speaking to Lydda. "You'll need me for when _he_-"

She pointed at Cos.

"-decides he has pressing business elsewhere, or goes all serious on you."

From her expression, something crossed her mind. She looked at Nemesis Kid. "There's… um…"

He guessed what she was thinking. "Don't worry. My powers cancel your powers."

She brightened up. "Well, then- I'm Drura."

"Hart."

* * *

Professor Vndaar mulled over the information Imra had fed him. It was all normal; but for the disorienting phenomenon in the middle, where Imra had tried to latch on to the disturbance.

He couldn't tell what it was. It seemed to slide away from his mental eyes whenever he tried to pin it down. The few times he managed to almost catch it, there seemed to be a patch there, as if there was hole in Imra's mind; and someone was trying to cover it up.

Vndaar withdrew from her mind and though about that.

A telepath the strength of Imra simply couldn't be going around in with a hole in her mind. Things might come out that hole, or there might have been something that was gone now, where that patch was. A telepath couldn't have something missing. There was no telling what they would do.

He had a duty to the galaxy to keep something like that from happening.

* * *

A feeling slowly crept over Cos as the people going on the date kept talking. Suddenly, he realized he'd made a horrible mistake.

A quick look at Violet confirmed his suspicions. He excused himself to Lydda for a moment and took his teammate aside.

"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked her quietly. "I feel like-"

"I'm fine." The abrupt way she said it didn't make him feel any better. "You go. I'll take the groceries back."

Cos decided it was time to let his emotions show, a bit. Concern colored his features. "Look, Violet- do you have a priest or someone to go to? I know you're having a hard time, and, and…"

_You won't talk to anyone in the Legion about this. I know you won't._

"Imskians are a very strong-minded, Cosmic Boy," she told him. "I don't know about Braal's Valorism; but Imsk doesn't _do _priests."

"Solitary Enlightenment?"

"We're the only planet with a majority population who practices that. You?"

"Braal has mostly Endless Perseverance; but my family has always turned to the Eternal Wisdom establishments."

"Rokk!" Lydda called.

"Go," Violet urged. "I'll be fine."

"Talk to someone?" He wasn't convinced she would, but turned to leave. "Please?"

Cos and the others left for the restaurant.

* * *

Jancel and the Legionnaires stood outside, trying to find something to discuss before the situation got _too_ awkward.

Lyle looked around at the passers-by, who seemed to be completely uninterested in the Legion.

Someone caught his eye, and he slipped away from the group.

"Hey," he said, coming up behind his target.

The person turned, and one look at the girl's large pink eyes and short blonde hair confirmed his suspicions.

"Mentalla?"

"Invisible Kid?"

"No way I thought I'd see you here."

Mentalla looked past him to the other Legionnaires. "What are you all doing here?"

Triplicate Girl came over. "You're Workforce, right?"

"_Former_ Workforce," Mentalla assured her. "Why is the Legion-?"

Jancel was hovering as Timber Wolf explained.

"I had felt something," she said when he'd finished. "But I didn't think it was important…"

"_Not important?_" Phantom Girl asked in disbelief. "Saturn Girl _fell over!_"

"My strength isn't really telepathy," Mentalla admitted sheepishly. "I can talk well enough to hold a conversation with someone nearby, but it's not anything to get excited over."

"So what can you do?" Lightning Lad asked.

Mentalla looked uncomfortable. "I- uh- I'll need a volunteer…"

"That'd be you, Garth," Trips said. "You asked."

He didn't look happy about that. "Fine."

"Just- just try not to do what I tell you to, okay?" Mentalla asked nervously.

"Uh- okay?"

She opened her mouth.

**RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND**

Garth's face contorted as he tried to keep his hand down, but he failed. The Voice was ringing in his head and vibrating in his bones, connecting neurons and moving muscles without consulting the consciousness.

**SPIN IN A CIRCLE**

His legs moved without any prompting on his part. He kept going and going, getting dizzy but unable to stop. He still couldn't put his hand down.

**STOP AT ONCE**

Every muscle in his body contracted, jerking Garth violently to a stop. He fell to the ground.

"_That's_ what I'm good at."

* * *

Violet dumped the bags onto the kitchen table and fought to keep herself from collapsing into one of the chairs. The trip to the store had done her good, but then they met Mirella; and they went to the Subs.

She had _tried_ to be happy, or least not in despair; but all she could think about was how she had _never_ had that opportunity-no, she had had it, she hadn't _taken _it- with Brainy, and how much she would give to even just have_ told_ him she wanted that…

Her heart was sunk down even past her stomach. She could feel it. Putting away the food and taking the bags to recycling didn't make it change at all. Being in the building seemed to make it worse, but she didn't feel like she could leave.

Sun Boy's voice entered her mind when she started towards her room. She detoured, hoping that the door wasn't locked.

* * *

"Why did we never see you in the field?" Tinya asked, astonished. "That's- _really good._"

"Ord- Duplicate Boy- didn't like me. No one really liked me. Except Gas Girl. But she likes everybody. I don't think they were comfortable having me around."

"Can't see why," Garth muttered from the ground.

Tinya kicked him, carefully.

"I'd like having that power around," Lyle said. "I can think of a whole bunch of things it'd be useful for. Why haven't you ever tried out for the Legion?"

"I didn't think you'd want me," Mentalla said. "You had Saturn Girl, and- people don't really like my power, even here on Titan."

"But you have not- manip-ulated anyone, yes?" Jancel asked.

Mentalla shook her head. "Not outside one Workforce mission, and just now with Lightning Lad."

"Then there is no reason to be uneasy," she decided. "None at all."

Mentalla smiled gratefully at her. "Thanks."

* * *

Violet's luck was in, and the door hadn't been locked.

So now she was in a large bathtub, filled with hot water and scented bubbles. The lights were down low, and there were candles all around.

It was wonderful and relaxing and if it had been a week before now, or maybe awhile in the future; it would have been perfect.

But it was too soon after the news, so she couldn't_ really_ enjoy it.

* * *

Timber Wolf's ears swiveled as he caught the sound of the door opening. Imra and Professor Vndaar emerged.

"Any luck?" Garth asked anxiously.

Imra shook her head.

He took her hand. "Guess who we found."

Imra looked at Mentalla. "Hello. You were in the Workforce, weren't you?"

She nodded. "I came back home when it all fell apart."

"You would not believe what her power is," Tinya said. "Do it again, Mentalla."

"_No_," Garth said forcefully. "Are you_ trying_ to humiliate me?"

"Maybe."

Imra slipped her hand out of his and went to hold Mentalla's in a proper Titanian greeting, which included a touching of minds.

Mentalla marveled at the controlled strength she felt in Saturn Girl's mind. It was a bit like standing atop a dam and feeling the vibrations as the water was forced into smaller streams within the structure. She felt small and insignificant by comparison.

Saturn Girl must have picked that up, because there was a feeling of kindly reassurance from her before she broke the connection.

* * *

Professor Vndaar pulled Jancel aside while the Legionnaires were talking.

_:There is something wrong in your sister's mind.:_

Shock radiated off her for a split second before she reined it in.

_:No, there can't be anything wrong with Imra. She's- she's the best there is and we would have noticed-:_

_:I think it comes from the strange thing that she felt. A part of her mind is missing. A small part, but that doesn't make it any less gone.:_

Jancel glanced at Imra, alarmed.

_:Gone? Really?:_

_:Yes. I'm sorry; but I think-:_

He felt her sorry and worry and stopped talking.

_:Oh, my poor sister…:_

* * *

Shrinking Violet drained the tub, put out the lights, and dried off; then sat down. She was very warm and clean and physically relaxed, but there didn't seem to be anything she could do about the tight knot of hurt inside.

Cos's words came back to her: _Talk to someone? _

She didn't have anyone to talk to. No one else was here in the building in the first place, if she even felt the remotest bit comfortable talking to any of the other Legionnaires. It was too personal to confide in someone she didn't know well; but also to personal to tell to someone she actually knew and would have to see later. And she didn't know anyone in the city besides Yera, a little, but that relationship was a little awkward after the impersonation. And she wouldn't know anything about where to find her at MetroU anyway-

_Metropolis. University. People she knew. _

Salu's mind instantly rewound through months of news reports until she remembered something that had been on the news ages ago.

She hurriedly cleaned up the bathroom and searched for a set of civilian clothes.

* * *

Professor Vndaar placed a hand on Imra's shoulder. She turned towards him.

_:Imra, I need you to say here.:_

_:Why?:_

_:I can't let you leave.:_

"_What?_"

The Legionnaires looked at her, concerned.

"_What_ what?" Lyle asked.

"What do you mean, I can't leave?" she asked, enraged. "We have to find out where-"

"That's why I cannot let you leave, Imra. The part in your mind where you can't find anything- I think that is because there is nothing there. I cannot let a telepath of your strength missing a part of their mind wander free. There is no telling how that will affect anyone else."

"You can't _do_ that!" Garth said hotly. "She's Legion Leader; she's in _charge!_ We _need_ her-"

"Titanians are very much their minds, Lightning Lad," Professor Vndaar told him severely. "The same way you can catch a disease from physical contact, Titanians have contagious mental states. This loss of a mental component, whatever caused it- it can be transmitted. This cannot be allowed to happen."

"You like that word: 'cannot', don't you?" Tinya asked, annoyed.

Imra yanked herself out of the professor's hold. "Don't worry yourself, Professor; I'm not going anywhere you might lose me."

She and the Legionnaires went off a few meters away from the others.

"Can he really do this?" Trips asked anxiously.

"He'd better not," Timber Wolf growled.

"He has the authority," Imra told them quietly. "But he doesn't have the power."

Lyle looked confused.

"He hasn't got the mental power," she clarified. "As the one to say I'm a possible threat-"

Garth made an indistinct noise of anger.

"-he has to be the one to watch me until the threat is either identified as positive or negative. I know how I feel to his mind; I loom. It's like standing at the foot of a mountain for him. He can't see everything. If I stay close, then he'll just feel me, not what I'm doing."

"That sounds like cheating," Brin said.

"It is, a bit. But it means that I can still help you if you need me."

Tinya seemed a little worried. "What if he's right, about this mental catching thing?"

"I don't think he is," Imra told her. "I'm pretty sure I've felt this before, somewhere. When I was going over it, on the cruiser, it seems to me like something was being covered up. I'm not sure what, but I'll figure it out."

"But what if he is?"

"I don't know, then."

Garth took her hand. "It'll be fine," he said reassuringly.

_:I know that you're not saying that for my benefit. I know you worry about me, Garth; ever since Esper Lass. No, don't shy away from it. You'll have to be in charge, now. Stay safe.:_

* * *

Shrinking Violet touched down on the lawn just outside the walls of the abbey of the Andromedan Valorite Reformers; just outside the MetroU campus.

A nun opened the gate.

"Is Laurel- Sister Andromeda here?" Violet asked.

"Oh, no, she's off to lunch," the nun told her. "Out with friends just like usual. Spends an hour every afternoon with them whenever she can. I'm not really sure why but-"

"Where does she take lunch?"

"At the New Haven Café, just there on the campus. She walks down there, you know. Takes off her robes, gets into street clothes, goes to meet-"

Violet was already gone.

* * *

Imra walked back over to Professor Vndaar and he saw Lightning Lad leveling another glare at him. He ignored it and escorted his former student back into the building.

"I _do_ know where to go, Professor," she pointed out.

"Rules are rules, Imra. You know that."

She stayed silent the rest of the way, trying to ignore the focus on her from the minds of the people they passed by.

* * *

Garth put one arm over Brin's shoulders and the other over Tinya's.

"Okay, then. We've had our leader pretty much arrested and put in quarantine, we still don't know why we're here, and we're stuck on this planet until we figure it out and get Imra back."

He looked in annoyance at Lyle; who had an eyebrow raised.

"_What?_" he challenged. "You wanted me to just _leave_ her here?"

"If you're considering a jailbreak, I'd like to say that we're on a planet full of _people who read minds_. And it's illegal."

"You kidnapped Condo from government custody, didn't you? Watch your mouth."

He just shrugged and looked at Lu. "You have any ideas?"

She turned away and went over to where Mentalla was standing, pulling her over.

"Did you feel that disturbance that Saturn Girl did?" she asked.

"_Sort_ of…"

"Look; you either did or you didn't," Timber Wolf said. "Which is it?"

"Well, I_ felt_ it but I couldn't tell you anything _about_ it…"

* * *

Violet pushed open the door to the New Haven Café. There were circular tables near the door, most of which were filled, and there was a drink bar along one wall. Farther to the back were long rectangular tables. Only one was occupied.

She spotted the back of Laurel's head immediately. She was sitting next to a man with black hair, and more people were ranged around them.

Laurel turned in her seat and saw her.

"Violet!" she called, standing. "What are you doing here?"

Violet went over and they hugged in greeting. She didn't want to get to the point quite yet.

"Are you going to introduce me to your friends?" she asked instead.

"Sure," Laurel told her. She gestured to the people at the table. "You know Yera, I think; and the one next to her is Xao-Ji, who's studying astrophysics. That's Harmonia Li and Jaxon Rugarth, from the Time Institute. Kent Shakespeare over there is a medicine student. And this-"

She put a hand fondly on the shoulder of the man next to her. He smiled at her. "-is Rond Vidar. He's also from the Time Institute."

"I'll be back in a minute," Xao-Ji muttered, heading for the bathroom.

"Hi, Violet," Yera said. "Any new business I should know about?"

"Gim isn't going to be around for awhile," Salu told her. "Laurel, I- I need to talk to you."

Laurel took one look at her face and grabbed her arm.

"Say I'm sorry I had to leave when he gets back, okay?" she asked Rond. "I think I need to do this _now._"

* * *

Tinya turned away from the group and considered an idea she'd had. Making her decision, she came up behind Jancel.

_Jancel?_ she asked with her mind.

"I am fine talking out loud-"

_I want to do this mentally, okay? Do you believe the Professor about Imra?_

_:I hope it isn't true.:_

_I don't want to know about what you hope; I want to know what you think._

_:I don't think she could have a hole in her mind like Professor Vndaar says and still be herself.:_

_Good. I have a proposition for you-_

* * *

Laurel led Salu into her rooms at the abbey and sat her down in a thickly-padded chair.

"What's wrong, Salu?" she asked, taking the chair opposite. "I haven't seen you in years, and you don't look very good."

Violet pulled her legs up and hugged them to her chest. "Do you remember that news report about the 'Supposed Death of Brainiac 5' about six months ago?"

Laurel nodded. "Jo and Dawny came by. I remember they went and caught the woman who'd planted the story."

"They caught her," Violet said morosely. "But it-it looks like the story wasn't planted."

Laurel stayed silent.

"We- we were on Colu two days ago; Lyle and Jan and Tasmia and I and a few others. There was this issue about memory loss and they called us a-and Terror Firma showed up, like they do, but- they claimed responsibility."

"For the story?"

"F-for his-" Her voice caught. "For his _murder_. The-they gave _physical evidence_, even. It's not conclusive but i-i-ts _convincing _and _more_ than probable an-an-and-"

Laurel got out of her chair and sat on the arm of Salu's.

Violet took a shaky breath. "The Legion knows all about it now and Cos and Sun Boy and Nemesis Kid and I ate our way through the whole gourmet supply yesterday and so we got left at HQ when the others there went on a mission and the guys went off on _dates_-"

Laurel could hear the tears in her eyes. She pulled Salu up and sat her down on the bed instead, putting a blanket around her shoulders. She sat down next to her old teammate.

Salu sniffed and kept talking. "Cos told me before he left to go talk to someone but I couldn't talk to anyone in the Legion even if there was anyone there-"

"Salu," Laurel said softly. "You can tell me."

She opened her mouth to try and speak and a strangled noise came out instead, forcing its way through tears. She tried again.

"I… I-I _love_ him, Laurel. I _love _him and I _never told_ him and I don't even think he's _alive_ anymore and I saw how _horrible_ he was when he left and he- he _needed_ help and support and maybe if I had _told _him then he wouldn't have _left _and he'd be-he'd still be _alive_-"

"You don't know he's dead."

"But it's likely! You don't _know_ these terrorists, Laurel! They don't care about who they hurt; they just go for mass destruction!"

"I know, Salu," Laurel said somberly. "I looked after orphans and children separated from their parents after Orando."

She was silent for awhile, then posed a question hopefully.

"Do you know what happened to him, then?"

Laurel looked at her in sympathy.

* * *

"You're sure this is it?" Garth asked, looking down at the building. "This is where it happened?"

"Yes," Jancel told him. "Right here."

He looked at it again. The building was low, gray, and uninteresting. It looked like a warehouse.

"What is this place, anyway?"

"It's a warehouse," Mentalla told him.

"_Of course it is,_" he muttered. "Okay, Tinya; I want you and Wolf- Wolf? Tinya, where's Wolf?"

* * *

Timber Wolf was sniffing around the foundations of the warehouse, trying to figure out where he had encountered the scent before. He sat back on his heels and searched his memory.

The building was distracting him. He closed his eyes.

He had done this once before. There had been fallen leaves and cold air; and the scent of often-cut grass and the city.

No. It had been later than that. Later that day.

There was a scent there, fleeting, trying to evade his nose.

He chased it.

* * *

Imra was being careful. She was using only a tiny part of her mind to watch the Legion, and kept most the rest concentrated on how angry she was at being detained.

The bit left over she put to prodding at the strange place in her mind.

It kept trying to slip away; and it managed that, no matter how much she tried.

She stopped for a moment and considered what she'd learned from all her time away from Titan.

Imra had spent all that time in the Legion; where everyone had different ideas.

And different approaches.

Ultra Boy popped into her mind, and she thought of the way he always just rushed into everything.

She smiled to herself and spread her mind out, imagining it sticky. She dropped it over the patch; and lifted.

It was more like a pull; a pull that tore at her mind and caught in the loose ends of her thoughts.

The patch came loose, and she looked at the spot under it.

* * *

Laurel was having a fight with herself. She couldn't decide if she should tell Salu what she wanted to hear, or if she should tell her the truth. She was completely sure that Dawnstar knew the truth; and Saturn Girl and Dream Girl probably did, too. She was only pretty sure that Ultra Boy had guessed, when he had been here, but it was a likely guess.

She was a nun, someone others looked to. She was supposed to tell the truth.

"No," she lied.

* * *

Brin pushed a window open and dropped through into the building.

Someone placed a hand on the back of his head and pushed him down.

"Let's not move; there's a good idea."

Brin couldn't see who it was, but he could smell them. The building was saturated in the smell of Terror Firma.

Someone knelt in front of him, and Elysion's head came into his view.

"So the Legion's here," he growled. "How do you think they found out?"

There was a beeping from his Legion flight ring. Elysion reached over and pulled it off, crushing it against the floor.

"You won't be needing that."

* * *

Garth glared at his ring in frustration. "He won't pick up."

Lyle was kneeling next to him. "Let's just go in, then."

"No plan?"

"Is there ever a plan?" Trips asked.

Mentalla looked worried. "Is there?"

* * *

Imra tried to reach out with her mind to the Legion but was blocked by Professor Vndaar.

"You know I can't let you do that."

_:I can and I will:_

She felt him flinch away from her mental touch and she let her self-control slip.

_:Curse you, Professor Vndaar!:_ She forced her mind on his. _:LOOK AT THIS!:_

He couldn't stop her, and had to look.

_:Now let me talk to them.:_

* * *

Violet left the abbey, not comforted in the least.

But she had Laurel's promise.

'_You can come to me for anything, Violet. It doesn't matter what it is, I will listen to you. Come any time.'_

That was the best thing that had happened all day.

* * *

Tinya led the charge into the warehouse; and was the first to be hit by the Terror Firma.

"Terrorists!" Garth yelled. "Watch it!"

The Legion went to work.

* * *

Lyle seemed to be the only one to remember that they had a non-combatant on the scene. He took it upon himself to guard Jancel; keeping her and the terrorists apart.

Imra voice echoed in his head, and from the reactions of the other Legionnaires; theirs as well.

_:I found what was under that patch. What I felt earlier was Terror Firma testing out their 'new idea'- you remember Praetor Lemnos? He came up with this one. They were going to project his forgetfulness into every Titanian's mind.:_

Lyle's memory raced, bringing up something from earlier. "And mental states on Titan are catching. It would have spread."

_:It would have spread past Titan. People would forget how to control their minds, and touch people who weren't telepaths and weren't protected, and it would just grow and grow. You have to find Praetor Lemnos.:_

* * *

Tinya heard Imra, but she was too busy looking for Brin.

She couldn't find him.

She turned a corner and ran straight into a mental blast. She was disoriented for a moment; then recovered.

Jeyra Etinn was standing there, with Elysion and the large alien behind her, holding Brin down.

Someone hit her from behind, and Jeyra struck at her mind again, and she passed out.

* * *

Mentalla was feeling a little useless. The Legion was being productive, but she couldn't think of anything to do, or anything to say to bring the fight to a halt.

_:Mentalla.:_

_:Saturn Girl?:_

_:This is what Praetor Lemnos looks like. Find him.:_

_:Me? This guy has been responsible for destroying-:_

_:FIND HIM.:_

She ran off down a hallway, away from the battle; looking for her target.

* * *

Violet returned to Legion HQ and sat in the darkness of the falling evening.

* * *

Brin closed his eyes as Tinya fell, and let the rage rise up in him. He shoved violently, and the terrorist holding him down lost his grip slightly.

He twisted, and the hands lost their hold completely.

"Uh-uh. Bad boy," Elysion said. He had moved; and one of his hands was on Tinya's head. "You want to see just how much bodies are composed of metals and minerals? Keep coming."

The Legionnaire stopped dead.

"There's more of them around, I've noticed. Some native I've never seen before, but she's not fighting. Non-combatants don't matter to me, either, I'm sure you've noticed."

"So what do you want?" Brin growled.

"Oh; well, you come with us," Elysion said. "We have some fun together, then we drop you off back home with the Legion. And we leave the people here on the planet- everyone, not just the natives- alone. We leave and don't do the business we came for."

Timber Wolf glanced at Tinya, lying unconscious on the floor.

"One thing first."

"Oh, very well," Elysion said. "What 'one thing'?"

"Why are you doing this? What possible reason could you have to attack the galaxy like this?"

"Revenge, Legionnaire. Against the UP and everyone who helps them."

"Why?"

Elysion shook a finger at him. "Ah-ah; one thing, you said. But I guess I'll let it slide. Don't expect this later."

"Back after the Galactic Wars, when the UP was first being formed? The planets, in a newly-found burst of amicable togetherness, took all their criminals and shuttled them out of the galaxy. Some of them ended up on Rimbor, sure; and some were never caught. Some ended up on different remote planets; most of those planets are still centers of criminal activity today. But the bulk of the criminals- oh, _they_ ended up going past the edge of the galaxy, far past any charted area anyone had ever seen. So there was some settlement, of course, and children, and love –don't look so stunned, criminals can love, too- and over time the ranks grew and grew and grew. But it was a hard place to live, where the exiles had settled. And _everyone_ knew whose fault it was that we were there."

"They were criminals," Brin growled.

"Weren't you paying attention! It was _every _criminal, _everyone_ convicted and in jail. It wasn't just murderers and gangsters and drug-hustlers. It was tax evaders, debtors, one-time drunks, and small-time pickpockets. People who were desperate, or made a bad mistake. They didn't _deserve_ what they got; but they got it _anyway. That's _what we're fighting for here."

Timber Wolf opened his mouth again.

"_No more talking."_

* * *

Mentalla entered a room and came face-to-face with the man she had apparently been fighting for almost a year.

He didn't look like much, but so did most people.

He turned, and seemed to know immediately that he was facing more than just an ex-almost-hero.

"Why, you _remembered _me!" he exclaimed. "I'm _truly_ flattered; how _thoughtful _of you!"

_:Be quiet, Lemnos.:_ Saturn Girl was broadcasting in public mode so anyone could hear. _:You are not going to do this.:_

"But I've put so much planning into this," he sighed theatrically. "You're going to deny me my master plan?"

_:Mentalla?:_

Suddenly she knew exactly what she had to do.

**YOU WILL NOT USE YOUR POWERS**

Lemnos looked stunned, and all his false dramatics disappeared.

**YOU WILL NEVER MAKE ANOTHER PERSON FORGET YOU, NOT EVER**

His look of concentration told her he was trying to disobey her order.

**YOU WILL NEVER CAUSE ANOTHER PERSON TO FORGET ANYTHING, EVER AGAIN**

* * *

There was a mental shriek of rage that wasn't Imra's. It drove everyone to the ground, Legionnaire and terrorist alike.

A torrent of mental images flooded through Garth's mind. In an instant, he saw Lemnos's plan, and Brin's capture, and Mentalla's orders.

The flood stopped and no one moved.

* * *

Phantom Girl woke up in all of an instant; just in time to see Timber Wolf being pushed into a white-blue light.

"Brin!" she cried, struggling to her feet.

She saw him smile at her; then kick out with his feet. Elysion tumbled out of the portal, falling to the ground. The portal closed and he roared in anger; spinning around to face Tinya.

But she knew a parting gift when she saw one, and was already right next to him; ready with a knock-out punch to the jaw.

She didn't bother to call the rest of the Legion to see how they were doing. She knew Terror Firma would already be gone.

* * *

Cosmic Boy, Nemesis Kid, and Sun Boy returned to Legion HQ, still talking and occasionally laughing from the group date.

They entered the main room and stopped, motionless; the words dying on their lips.

Shrinking Violet was curled up in a chair; that they could have anticipated. But Imra was sunk into the couch, leaning into Garth. Lyle was listlessly tapping away at the computer, clearly not doing anything; and Triplicate Girl was just leaning against the console next to him.

Phantom Girl was on the other couch, lying scrunched up on one-half of it.

"Terror Firma was on Titan," she said quietly into the silence. "They took Brin."

Cos collapsed onto the couch next to her; head in his hands.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

"**Sovereignty"**

* * *

Saturn Girl sat cross-legged on her bed. If Element Lad or Karate Kid had walked in, they would have said she was meditating. If Triplicate Girl had shown up she would have become alarmed by Imra's shallow breathing and tried to snap her out of it.

Garth would have taken one look and stepped back out. He would have known what she looked like when she was in a trance.

Though in a light trance, Imra wasn't meditating.

She was searching.

She spread her mind out over New Metropolis, feeling the contours and textures of the city's collective conscious and reveling briefly in the abundance of life around her. She spread her awareness and skipped lightly over the suburbs and outlying areas, running into the next major urban centers quickly.

Imra didn't spend any time on reveling in these other cities; stopping only long enough to make sure her targets weren't there. She didn't find them, but she hadn't expected them to.

She reached the opposite side of the planet and started spreading out into the star system. She gave a thorough search of Nullport; the orbiting dock for all incoming space traffic to Earth; then hit the few scientific moon colonies, the Earth settlements on Mars, and the few mining stations on the Kuiper Asteroid belt. Her mind reached Titan and she spent a moment reassuring the people who sent a silent question out to her. She wasn't there to search around like she had on her last visit, but took reassurance from the fact that Reep and Dawnstar had arrived safely.

There were few populations until the ski resorts on Neptune. Mostly the people there were tourists and people on vacation; but she could pick out a few concentrations of permanent residents. Then there was the vast emptiness of space until the next star system, punctuated only by the small points of traveling starships streaming across the cosmos.

Imra wasn't sure how long she kept her search up before she felt her concentration wavering. She sighed and carefully pulled her mind back in from the far reaches of galaxy; letting herself adjust slowly to the much smaller confines of her own body.

She opened her eyes to a knock at her door. It opened and Nura stuck her head in. Saturn Girl saw that her deputy was wearing her formal attire as High Seer Apparent of Naltor; all in blue and silver and white gauze.

Imra groaned. "We're leaving already? I haven't gotten ready."

"We don't have to leave just yet," Nura assured her. "Any luck with the search?"

"Don't you think I would have said something by now?" Imra asked sardonically. She sighed in resignation and continued. "I still can't find any sign of Brin or Terror Firma. I've been looking ever since he got taken, but-"

"Hey, Cham and Dawnstar are on it," Nura reminded her superior. "Now you need to take a break and get all dressed up for our trip to Weber's World."

* * *

Dawnstar knelt in the middle of the Titanian street and Cham considered shifting to look more like the natives.

"Got anything?" he asked her quietly.

She looked up at the sky. "The trail has faded a little, but I think I can track the way that the terrorist was seen escaping."

"It's just been a string of lucky breaks since Wolf, well, since Wolf-"

Dawnstar cut him off and saved him from his faltering sentence. "Certainly no one ever expected Terror Firma to miss a member when they left. They're usually very thorough."

"And now we are going to ambush them for once!" Cham brightened up. "Well, what are we standing around here for?"

He lifted up into the sky. Dawnstar stood and spread her wings wide; then rose to follow him.

* * *

Violet flopped down onto her bed and pulled her pillow over her face. It was stifling, but soft. She hoped it would help her fall soundly asleep, but knew in her gut it was hopeless. Even when she did manage to fall asleep, she couldn't stay asleep.

If it wasn't restlessness over the way the situation with Terror Firma seemed to be coming to a head it was worry. If it wasn't worry about how everything was going to turn out it was fear. If it wasn't fear of the murderer in the basement it was the nightmares.

She hated the nightmares. They crept up on her just as she had managed to put the worry and restlessness and fear out of her mind and truly fall asleep; often after half a night of what could only be considered short naps.

She groaned in frustration and hauled the pillow off her face. Briefly she considered finding Lyle and apologizing for her hasty, almost neurotic exit from the lab; but then remembered the reason she had left the way she did was because he was trying to cajole her into watch duty on Elysion down in the basement.

Her whole body shuddered and she rolled over. She couldn't do that.

There was a polite knock at her door and Violet considered getting up. There was another knock.

"Lyle," she said loudly, trying to sound more irritated than tired or shaken. "I'm not coming on duty with you."

"Actually," Jan said, stepping into the room. "I'm off right now. May I come in?"

He smiled kindly at her when she didn't respond. "Lately you've seem as if you need someone to talk to."

"I talked to Laurel," she told him, trying to stall for time as she decided what to do.

"Did it help?" he asked.

Violet stayed silent.

Jan came over and sat down next to her. "It didn't help, did it?"

She shook her head slowly. There was silence as she decided to speak.

"Laurel was nice and all and I talked but… but I was talking _at_ her. There wasn't really a lot of- _conversation_ going on. Yeah, she _said _things, but…"

Jan considered this. "Was she trying to be too polite?"

"No. It was more like she was trying not to say something." She swallowed. "I've been trying to figure out what it might be and I don't like the answers I've come up with."

"What do you think she was trying not to say?"

"That I'm being _stupid,_" she said viciously. "That I can't let _go_ and I need to move _on_ and that I need to stop trying to _kid_ myself with even the _slightest _hope of the _possibility_ he's still alive."

He looked at her sadly. "Are you sure that's not what _you_ think; Violet?"

* * *

Tinya sat curled up in the corner of the couch, fretting. Brin had been gone for too long, stuck in the clutches of terrorists. No one had explicitly said anything; but everyone knew what had happened to Brainy.

That couldn't happen to Brin. It _couldn't_.

She had been alternating between periods of hopelessness and incoherent rage. Sometimes she couldn't stop thinking of what had to have happened; sometimes ferocious anger welled up and she felt she had to tear the villains apart.

There was very little in her room in this dimension; and most of it was broken or damaged in some way.

Curling up on the couch was the best thing she could do right now.

"Tinya?" Nura called. "You need to get ready to go to Weber's World."

She didn't move. "I _really_ don't want to see my mother right now. I _really_ don't."

Nura grabbed the back of her collar. "Between you and Imra today- oh, the two of you. We have to leave. Very, very soon. At least _she _was in her room."

"I don't want to come."

"You have too. Come on, get up, get dressed. Jeckie and Tasmia are already down by the door. You can go back to feeling bad after we leave."

Tinya pushed herself up.

"What's with you?" she snapped. "Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Nura retorted, stalking out.

* * *

Lyle leaned back against the wall and tried not to think about Elysion, who was currently locked up in the cell to his right.

He couldn't even figure out why they had cells in the basement. Sure, Legion HQ had been trashed and needed to be rebuilt; but jail cells? In the building? That was far too close to encroaching onto SciPol territory. Maybe someone had foreseen the need for this sort of thing. Certainly the Metropolis Science Police Department didn't want to handle Elysion.

Perhaps it had been Nura who approved it.

Then Lyle remembered the last plans had been drawn up after the Kandor Incident. _Great._ They had jail cells in the basement courtesy of an obsessive maniac who tried to digitally codify the universe.

He grimaced and continued ignoring Elysion. Lyle supposed he couldn't blame Violet for not wanting to come down and share guard duty, what with the issue about Brainy and all, but staying in the same place with someone who _clearly_ wanted to tear your guts out and was making _sure _you knew it would be more bearable with company.

Lyle sighed and considered sticking something in his ears.

* * *

Cham strained to keep up with Dawnstar. He knew she was trying to control her speed for him, but it must have been horrible to keep up. She had been clocked at speeds faster than any Kryptonian, and essentially every form of transportation known to the galaxy.

"Look," he told her over the rings. "If you want to go ahead, go ahead. I'll catch up."

Dawnstar dropped back. "You would never be able to do it. Flight rings don't have that capability."

"Can you stop for a minute, Dawnstar?"

The two Legionnaires pulled up and hovered in space.

"Do we have a good reason for stopping?"

"Just hold still a second, please."

Dawnstar kept utterly still and wondered what was going on. Suddenly Cham's back twisted. Great white wings formed out of the mass.

"That's good. Thanks."

Dawnstar smiled; something she wasn't seen to do often. "Well then, Chameleon Boy- ready to go at an appreciable fraction of lightspeed?"

* * *

"What _I_ think?" Violet asked.

Jan nodded. "I'm not very sure that the others think that of you. More than a few have lost some of the people they have cared about deeply; or have as good as lost them. They are not the people I think they are if they can't empathize."

Violet sulked and said something she_ knew_ was unfair. "This is different."

"It's not, much," he disagreed softly. "Nura's mother died. Lyle's father disowned him. Dirk's mother walked out and his father can't seem to be bothered with his son. I don't think Drake even _has_ a family; at least one he cares to talk about. Brin's mother died and then his father experimented on him. Tasmia's mother is dead; and I don't know what happened to her father. Condo's parents abandoned him. Reep's mother is dead. Tinya's father is dead. Luornu was abandoned and the grandmother who raised her is dead. Val has no family. Laurel's mother didn't care about her. Garth- everyone knows about Garth's family. And -though he never really talked about it- I can't imagine that Brainiac 5's home life was particularly pleasant, either."

Unspoken was the obvious fact that Jan's planet was gone.

She couldn't say anything to Jan's list of sorrows. She knew it was all true; but the hurt said something different.

* * *

Garth sat in the kitchen, eating lunch. It had been quite awhile since he had seen Imra and the others off on their mission and he was enjoying the quiet. There weren't many people in the building; just him and Lyle downstairs, and Jan and Violet around somewhere. He thought Wildfire might be hanging around; but he wasn't sure.

He had just taken a bite of his lunch when the alarm went off.

The food caught in his throat and he coughed violently. He stood and tried to clear his airway, leaning on the edge of the table.

Running footsteps went past the door as Garth managed to breathe normally. He dashed off after the other people as soon as he caught his breath.

He met Wildfire in the hall just outside the main foyer. Jan and Violet were already there- Violet had her guns out, just in case.

Lyle came up behind them, as unexpectedly as ever.

"Any idea who it is?" he asked them quietly. Violet shook her head.

Garth got up right behind the door. "Well, let's go see."

* * *

Jeckie stood in front of the United Planets Senate and listened to the dignitaries kept on talking.

"These terrorists are led by a man who can make everyone forget he exists?" the Starhaven Senator asked skeptically.

"You really expect us to believe that?" the Thanagarian Senator snorted. "Of all the things you've claimed over the years, this is truly the most outlandish."

"We had noticed that, Ambassador," Jeckie said politely. "Yet, however outlandish, our claims have always been true."

"Perhaps," the Tamaranean Senator agreed cautiously. "But there has to be a line between plausible and impossible; does there not?"

"It's farther towards impossible than you think," Tasmia muttered.

Nura shushed her quietly.

The Terran Senator spoke. "There is simply _no way_ that anyone could, in this day and age, evade the numerous security systems in place throughout the galaxy."

_Brainy managed it_, Jeckie thought crossly. She heard Saturn Girl agree with her in the back of her mind.

Nura stepped forward. "His power_ is_ to keep himself unremembered when he is not in view. It would be very easy to sneak back into a building –and he wouldn't even have to sneak, he could just walk right in- and erase the security footage."

"You stretch the bounds of reason," the Xanthuan Senator accused.

Jeckie decided she needed to step in. "But the Orandan Royal Family and the Royal Court can vouch for his power. There, at least, he was not so careful. They still keep written records; and those records survived the destruction of the capital."

"Perhaps you are used to being heard at home, Princess," the Bismollian Senator said stiffly. "But Orando does not belong to the United Planets, just as Talok and Naltor remain independent of this government. Your status elsewhere has no bearing on the possible… _influence_ you may have there."

Imra stepped forward as she felt Jeckie bristle at the suggestion that she would use her position to falsify records.

"It may be that those planets do not belong to this government," she said. "But as ranking members of their respective governments, they still afford respect."

_I can take care of my _own_ reputation, thank you very much._

Imra caught Tasmia's thought as she considered what to say next.

The President spoke before she could. "Thank you for coming to hear the Legion's testimony, Senators. I know you're all very busy but it serves the best interests of everyone that as many people as possible get informed. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take this to the Council."

* * *

Elysion leaned back against the wall and savored the sound of the Legion's Proximity Alarm. He wondered who would be so foolish as to try and sneak in the building to have set it off.

He hoped it wasn't any of his team. He'd have to kill whoever it was for sheer idiocy and incompetence. It had taken so long to train them right.

He closed his eyes to get the full effect.

A hand grabbed his collar roughly and pulled. Elysion's eyes snapped open.

His face was centimeters away from Duplicate Boy's.

"How _dare_ you!" the deranged hero hissed. "How _dare_ you go after Shrinking Violet! No one touches her, you hear? _No one!_"

Elysion blinked and gathered his thoughts.

"Oh, it's _you,_" he sneered. "The head fool of a team of failures."

Ord made a wrathful noise. "I. Did. Not. Fail."

"Oh _really._ Then why would that team- no, it wasn't even a _team,_ was it?- that _fallacy_ of a temporary cooperation not exist anymore, hm?"

"The others were the ones who left! They didn't see how I was taking them from obscurity and impotency to greatness and power! _They_ were the ones who made mistakes! _Not me!_ Not _ever_ me."

Elysion sneered at him. "What were you planning to do, anyway; Mr. Perfection?"

"I know where you're based," Ord said, suddenly calm. "I followed you all there, after Titan. I can get any of you."

The slight nervousness which had been growing in the back of Elysion's mind disappeared. "Oh, so you were going to terrify me with the absolutely paralyzing potential of teleportation?"

"I've been holding you, haven't I?" Ord asked, still too calm. "Just because those cuffs on your arms keep you from using your powers doesn't mean I can't copy them myself."

Elysion could feel his heart start to race.

"There is a reason it's called 'carbon-based life-form'. Everything in your body is natural. It comes out of the ground. You want to see how much of it I can twist around?"

* * *

Garth opened the door quickly; Violet and Jan right behind him. Bouncing Boy was already in the foyer, standing over a young blonde girl.

He did a double-take. "Uh- Inferno?"

The girl looked at him. "Yes."

Lyle was hovering off in the corner of his vision. It was going to get annoying very, very soon.

"What are you doing in here?"

"I need someplace to stay."

"What?" Garth had been prepared for a barrage of insults or a melodramatic rant about how they had ruined her chances at life. Not a request for couch space.

"Why should we let you stay here?" Wildfire was ready with a challenge, as always.

Inferno titled her head to the side and considered this. The silence stretched, and Violet seemed to have realized in all of a second that she still had her guns out. She put them away self-consciously.

"I can tell you what Duplicate Boy and Atmos were doing sneaking around in here."

"What?" Bouncing Boy's voice was indignant.

"People have been in here?" Lyle asked, eyes wide. "And we didn't notice?"

Inferno just gave him a look that said 'clearly'. "They were looking to see if there was anything they could use against you."

"Like blackmail?" Garth asked, trying to keep up.

"They just got distracted, though," Inferno told them. It sounded as if she was trying to be reassuring. "I think Atmos had found Dream Girl's room."

"Figures," Wildfire said.

"And Duplicate Boy was in your room," she told Shrinking Violet.

Violet shuddered slightly, thinking of him in her room, going through her things. She wiped her hands nervously on her skirt. She was going to have to scrub down the whole room before she felt comfortable in there again.

And perhaps get a better lock.

Jan, as always, had a thoughtful look on his face. "You were here too, weren't you?"

Inferno slumped a little bit and looked off to one side. She nodded.

"Oh, so _you_ were in on it, too?" Garth asked sarcastically. "Where were you?"

"In the lab. In Phantom Girl's room. In Shadow Lass's room. In-"

Her eyes flicked to Jan. "-Element Lad's room. In yours."

"_Mine?_"

"I didn't tell them anything," she said defensively. Then she blushed a bit. "You have a cute sister."

Garth blinked. "Uh- thanks?"

* * *

"We're getting close, Chameleon Boy," Dawnstar said over the ring communicators. "This is the system."

Cham looked at the system's sun; glowing orange off in the distance.

"Where are we anyway?"

Dawnstar shrugged. "29.20239_A'; _192.382_L'; _5948.1829344_U'_."

Cham stared at her. "You know the navigational coordinates right off the top of your head?"

She pointed to the ring. "I would not be able to calculate it that exactly in my mind."

"Still, _wow._ Which planet?"

Two planets loomed ahead, a red-orange gas giant and a slightly smaller rocky planet of the same color. Dawnstar pointed to the space between them. Cham saw a small moon orbiting there.

"Off we go, then."

* * *

Nura finished telling the United Planets Council what the Legion had found and stepped back.

The President looked her Council over. "Thoughts?"

"An invisible person-" one began to say.

Imra interjected herself politely. "Not invisible. More like mind manipulation."

Another councilor winced and Imra backed up against the wall.

"And that's why we've never heard of this man."

Nura nodded.

A man on the other end of the table spoke up. "This sounds even more crazy than time-travel; in its own way."

"That's something you learn, doing what we do," Tasmia said. "The universe is never the way you think it should be. It's always wrong in all the right ways."

The councilman nodded.

Another councilor looked at the Legionnaires. "Can you handle this?"

"We've been handling things for years," Imra reminded everyone tiredly. "We're not going to just stop."

A different councilor held his arms out in a gesture of acquiescence. "Well, then, by all means- keep doing it."

Imra smiled at him.

The President looked around. "Well, I think that wraps our business up."

She stood and the rest of the councilors followed suit. Jeckie bowed politely and the Legionnaires began to leave.

Tinya was hoping she was going to manage to escape her mother's clutches. She was not so fortunate.

"Tinya, dear, come with me."

_:We'll wait for you in the ship, Tinya.:_

* * *

Inferno was curled up on the couch, sleeping.

"Really? You're letting her stay?" Bouncy asked Garth quietly. "Even after she was in your room?"

"Do you want to try arguing with Jan?" he grumbled. "He's got that quietly serious look on. You know what that means."

Bouncy did know. That was Jan's 'I will not back down on this issue' face. He'd used it a lot back when the team had still been in-fighting.

"Fine. But explain that to Wildfire before she wakes up, will you? We don't need our guests getting toasted."

* * *

Duplicate Boy paused. There were footsteps overhead.

Elysion thought fast. "How about you don't practice your stolen abilities on me; and I leave your girl alone?"

The former hero stared at him.

"Don't misunderstand me," Elysion said. "I'm going to kill the rest of the Legion. But I'll keep Shrinking Violet for you."

Ord's face twisted as the footsteps came closer.

"Fine," he growled. "You keep your promise, Elysion. Or I'll be back."

He disappeared in a blue light.

Elysion could have kicked himself.

* * *

Dawnstar landed on the moon, hiding herself behind a rock outcropping.

"We should call back now," Cham said quietly. "The Legion needs to be here."

He looked over. Dawnstar was gone.

Cham's thoughts stuttered and he stuck his head over the outcropping. Dawnstar was inspecting a large glowing blue triangle hanging in the air.

"That's a portal, isn't it?" he called.

He saw her nod. "This isn't really the base. Where Terror Firma really operates from is through here."

"You're not going _in_ there, are you?"

"Don't we have too?"

* * *

Wildfire was minding the computer when a call came through. It was pre-recorded; the person sending the message wasn't even on the line anymore.

He opened it. Cham's face popped up.

"We found the way to Terror Firma's base. It's not actually on the planet, there's some kind of permanent portal thing but we can go through there. I don't like it though; you can't see where you're going-"

Cham had stopped and looked off to his side. "Fine; fine!" he muttered. "The coordinates are 29.20239183_A'; _192.38209218_L'; _5948.1829344116_U'_. All available Legionnaires please report to this location."

The recording ended and Wildfire hit the General Alarm button.

* * *

All across the galaxy, Legionnaires stopped what they were doing and headed for the skies.

* * *

On Weber's World, no one noticed that Nura had slipped off some time before.

* * *

The President closed the door to her private quarters behind her. Tinya stood closer to the middle of the room, hunched over uncomfortably.

"Now, Tinya, when I left Bgtzl-"

"Mom, you're bringing this up _again?_" Tinya asked in exasperation. "I heard _all about_ this when I joined the Legion!"

"-everyone said I was crazy to leave Bgtzl since-"

"-Aunt Enya, _whom you named me in memory of_, went 'planet-hopping across the galaxy and _disappeared_ into the cold oblivion of space'. _I know, I know._"

"No one knows what happened to her-"

"I'll be _fine_, Mom. I've _been_ fine for _eight years_ now."

"You can never be too careful, Tinya," she scolded gently. "Maybe you don't remember what happened to most of the criminals that got sent off when the United Planets starting forming; but_ I_ do. No one knows where they actually went. Uncharted regions of space, Tinya. That's what happened to my sister-"

Tinya's ring went off.

"Well, Mom; _I'm_ coming back," Tinya promised, pecking her on the cheek. "Wish me luck!"

She waved goodbye as she phased through the floor.

Winema Wazzo stared worriedly at the space where her daughter had been but moments before.

* * *

"They got it," Cham told Dawnstar. "Are we going to wait here, or-"

Dawnstar stepped through the portal into unknown territory.

"Okay," he said under his breath. "I hope they can figure out where we went."

He followed her through.

* * *

Jeyra Etinn stopped what she was doing and listened. There were minds here, minds who were not supposed to be anywhere near where she was right now.

"Stay on the watch schedule," she ordered the beings around the control consoles. "Call me if anything happens."

She walked out of the room, thinking over this new development.

There were Legionnaires here, and if there were a few there would be many soon.

And if they were _here_, then there weren't any _there_.

Jeyra smiled to herself. It was time to do some _real_ damage to the United Planets. Always attack where the enemy isn't.

She called the strike team.


	15. Chapter 14a

**Chapter 14a**

"**Small Victories, Part 1"**

In space, the Legion cruiser intercepted the Legionnaires heading for the UP moon where the other end of the portal was anchored.

Across town, Jeyra Etinn and her Terror Firma strike team materialized in the middle of a street and began their assault.

Nura carefully piloted her 'liberated' UP space flyer into the space boundaries of Nullport; Earth's orbiting space docks.

She opened up a communications line to Nullport Space Traffic Control. "This is United Planets Flyer 'Diplomat Five-Three-Eight', tag zero-nine-two-eight-eight-nine-three-five-dee-eye-pee-you-pee; requesting docking space."

A pleasant, bland voice that sounded suspiciously like a computer recording came over from the other end. "Diplomat Five-Three-Eight, you are cleared for landing in Dock fifty-three."

She decided to cover all contingencies and thanked the voice that was probably a computer recording, then set the autopilot to land the ship. Nura could fly fine but she couldn't land for her life.

The airlocks unlatched and she spent next to no time getting out of the ship. She headed straight for the transmatter gates to get to the planet's surface and ran right into the back of the crowd.

"What's going on?" she demanded of the person next to her. He gave her a brief glance, and Nura remembered she was out of uniform; and probably not instantly recognizable.

"They've shut the gates down," he told her. "Something's happening on the surface. Don't know what, though-"

His voice and all the rest of the noise in the crowded transmatter lobby faded away as Nura felt a flash of precognizance coming on.

_Terror Firma, in larger numbers than ever before, stormed down one of the main streets of New Metropolis. She could see the Space Museum off far off in the distance and could just make out the very top of the Superman Museum, even farther away. They were headed in the general direction of Legion HQ._

She came fully back to the waking world to see the man looking at her, seeming slightly concerned. She glanced down at her diplomatic finery and growled a little under her breath. Taking the draping gauzy material that served her a shawl, sash, and light overskirt she tied up the outfit as best she could to ensure easy movement.

"Thanks," Nura told the man absently, and lifted off over the crowd.

Violet, Lyle, and Bouncy crowded around the Monitor Board.

"Why did this have to happen now?" Lyle groaned.

"They probably realized we found them and there's no one here," Violet told him glumly. "Or else they just have _really_ bad timing."

Bouncy was just standing there, staring at the various security feeds streaming in from the public cameras around the city.

"Could you switch it to a street map?" he asked.

Lyle reached over Violet and tapped on some keys. A street map popped up with little glowing dots to show where the cameras were situated.

"Can you bring up the feeds in smaller windows? Without blocking out the map?"

Violet pushed Lyle out of the way and typed furiously on the keyboard. Streaming video popped up.

The two young scientists watched Bouncy surreptitiously as he stared at the map, thinking.

"Inferno's still out on the couch, right?" he asked.

Lyle nodded.

"Go wake her up. I've got a plan."

Star Boy opened another door on the cruiser. "Have you see-"

Jeckie _looked_ at him from her seat next to Karate Kid.

"Nura?" he asked weakly.

She shook her head. "Not since Weber's World."

He closed the door carefully and wondered if he'd missed anyone. He'd looked everywhere he could think of on the ship, but he couldn't find Nura. But he knew who could.

Still walking, Thom considered how exactly you got in contact with a telepath. Would just thinking be enough? Would he have to do it loudly, or would he have to open his head or what?

_:I can hear you from the bridge, you know.:_

That was easy.

_Have you seen Nura?_

_:No-:_

_Could you look?_

Thom felt a change and got the feeling Imra was 'distracted' by looking.

There was a flash of alarm.

_Imra?_

_:She's not here!:_ she told him, slightly panicked. He felt her leave his mind.

Thom considered his options for a second and lifted off the hall floor and flew towards the bridge.

Jeyra surveyed the city spread out around her. Terror Firma was wreaking havoc on the nearby area; but for some reason there was smoke coming from off to the northwest.

She dismissed it as irrelevant and sent out another telepathetic call to her team.

:_Keep moving forward. We're almost to the Space Museum now. Legion HQ isn't far past that.:_

There was a general consent and she trotted across the balcony to the sky bridge that spanned one of the wide avenues in the city's downtown district. One of her people blasted it to pieces behind her.

There were people cowering all around in whatever shelter they could find on this level. Jeyra smiled nastily at the nearest one.

"Come on out of there," she told him. He moved jerkily, trying to disobey the motor centers of his brain that she had seized. "Now-"

_Jeyra?_ asked one of the terrorists. _We've reached the Space Museum and some the front runners are almost to the Superman Museum. What do you want us to do?_

Jeyra released the man. "It's your lucky day," she told him, heading off down the walkway again.

Inferno stirred towards wakefulness. She opened her eyes blearily and brushed hair out of her eyes.

"Hey," Invisible Kid said, shaking her again. "C'mon, you've got to get up. Bouncy needs you. Terror Firma is in the city."

She sat up quickly and Lyle banged his nose on the top of her head. He held it, air hissing through his teeth, as she ran out of the room.

"Ghuh ub the sthairs ohn yhur rhight!" he called after her.

She dashed to the right and ran up the stairs.

"What do you _mean,_ you can't find her?" Cosmic Boy asked in alarm. "She was with you on Weber's World!"

"I know she was, but now she's _not!_" protested Imra. "She's not on the ship and we don't have any time to go and look for her. Reep and Dawnstar are already to Terror Firma's home base and we can't just _leave_ them there!"

Shvaughn was sitting uncomfortably a few feet away in one of the bridge's command chairs. Tyroc sat in the next seat over, monitoring their flight path.

"Should we be worried?" Shvaughn asked.

Tyroc shrugged. "Nura's weird that way. Sometimes she's there when you want her, sometimes she's not."

"There'd better be a good reason for this," Garth muttered. He was fiddling with whatever came to hand.

"If you keep messing with the console we're going to have a problem sooner or later," Tyroc told him severely. "Keep your hands to yourself or get up and pace or something."

Garth looked at him moodily and started tapping his feet.

"We should have waited for Bouncy and Lyle and Violet," he said, changing the subject.

"They knew they were assigned to HQ duty," Tyroc retorted.

"Yeah, well, what if something happens? They're not really the best people for a straight on attack or anything."

"I had rather thought they were good at devising indirect attacks," Shvaughn said.

"Doesn't mean they'll _work._"

"Bouncing Boy had a good run as leader," Tyroc reminded him. "He will be able to handle whatever comes along."

"We should've left _you._"

Jeyra sat atop the Space Museum and pondered the layout of the city streets. She'd had time to study them when she was undercover as a Science Police consultant in the city, but the miles of steel and concrete and synthetic polymers were having an effect on her team. They all drew their powers from natural things, mostly- air currents, chemical reactions, the water cycle, nuclear forces…

Curse the Legion and all their resources. The city was supposed to be in ruins by the time this part of plan was put in place.

_Jeyra? _called someone.

_:Yes?:_ she snapped.

She could feel the man flinch away from her tone.

_We're all in the- the- what is this called again? The big open paved space with all the statues and the, uh, the thing in the middle-_

_:Heroes' Square.:_ she snapped again and smiled to herself when she felt the man flinch once more. _:Haven't you ever seen a city before?:_

_No._

She snorted. _:Fine, country-boy. Now, you'll want to look down the boulevard –that's the one of the _other_ side of the road going to the big building with the giant guy in the cape in front. There's another square -oh, _excuse_ me, the big open paved space- at the other end of that road and big tower. Send somebody down there. That's where Elysion is being held.:_

Lyle staggered into the Monitor Board room and managed to catch the tail end of Bouncy's plan.

"- Violet, if you stay here," he said, pointing to a spot on the map. "Then you can call us all over the rings and tell us what's going on. And if Inferno will come down this way-"

He ran his finger down a long road. "-then Terror Firma will be stuck here."

"Big space to be stuck in," Violet said.

"But good for us."

Lyle felt someone come up behind him and turned.

Nura was there, her formal robes tied up and scowling angrily. "You know they've shut down the transmatter gates from Nullport? I had to threaten the gatekeeper three different ways _and _show him my diplomatic passports _and_ my flight ring before he'd open one, and _then _he'd only drop me off at Papp Spaceport instead of Klein. I had to fly _all _the way over here and I _couldn't _even come down Lanning because I had to detour over Shuster Park to avoid the terrorists."

"Um, Nura; that's unfortunate, but-" he pointed to the map. "Busy."

"Oh, right, that. By the way-" She raised her voice. "-Bouncy!"

He turned and looked at her in shock. "You- you're-"

"-on monitor duty," she said, pulling off the gauzy material that had been draped over her outfit. "You need to be out in the field making sure this works. Now hurry up and go before something _drastic _happens."

Stories below, in the basement of Legion HQ, the air hummed as a force field was deactivated.

Elysion emerged from the cell and looked over to the right where Jeyra's team member was nervously poking at the exposed wires of the control pad for the cell door.

"I don't think they really repaired this right," the woman said. "I mean, look at this, there's a bunch of connections here that aren't being used and it doesn't look like they're extra in any way-"

She trailed off as Elysion came up behind her and put an arm around her shoulder.

"Really?" he asked peering at it.

She relaxed a bit. "Yes, see here-"

Elysion shifted slightly, then slammed the woman's head into the wall.

He walked away as she crumpled to the floor.

"Foot soldiers," he muttered derisively.

"No, we don't where she is," Cos explained for the twelfth time. "But we're here now and we have to do what we came to."

Sun Boy, standing across from him, scuffed his foot in the dry, red-orange dirt of the tiny planet they'd landed on.

"Still, I'd feel better if I knew where she was."

Cos just sighed and turned to face the rest of the Legion, cupping his hands around his mouth.

"Legionnaires!"

Everyone quieted down.

"We're going to need two teams: one to find Timber Wolf and one to stop Terror Firma. Now, Princess Projectra and Phantom Girl are going to join up with Chameleon Boy and Dawnstar to find Timber Wolf. Is there anyone who'd like to volunteer to go with them?"

Karate Kid raised his hand, followed closely by Chemical King.

"The four of you, then," he said. "You'll need to be stealthy about this, all right? I don't want anyone knowing we're here until we're ready for them to. The rest of you are with me. It's time for us to put a stop to Terror Firma."

Cham was wandering the dusty village street, taking in the sights as just another probably-human.

Stone buildings, held together with a mud-based mortar. Smoke rose from the occasional chimney- _chimneys;_ in the thirty-first century!- and fire pits outside wood doors.

This planet was desolate. Even the poorest, most barren planets in the galaxy were better off than this. _Braal_ wasn't this wretched.

Even Durla, infamous for its devastated surface and general primitiveness, had a landing strip or two for spaceships.

No one even looked up at him, though in a place this small he had to be known as a stranger.

They all acted- scared. Beaten down.

He wandered out of the village and ducked behind an outcrop of rock that rose slowly into great cliffs. A few minutes later he was ascending up the side of the cliff-face, hidden from the view of any villagers who might be looking up.

Dawnstar knelt at the top of the cliffs, looking down over the flat plains that swept off into the distance.

"Every single one's the same," he told her. "Tiny, dusty, downtrodden, and pitiful. I don't even think that there's a fighting person among them. If this is where Terror Firma is from I can't imagine where they found their people."

They stared off at the small, blue sun setting in the distance. The sky of this world was a light, light blue, almost white; and the sunsets were simply a darkening of the color until the whole sky was black.

The air thrummed slightly and they turned to look over the broad plateau back towards the faint blue glow of the portal back to the world in their galaxy. The Legion was coming through.

The terrorist reached the cover of the trees and relaxed slightly. There weren't many trees on his homeworld, but at least it wasn't canyons of steel and glass.

_:Don't relax!:_ Jeyra yelled in his head. _:The Legion drove us here; there's got to be a plan!:_

Suddenly the shadows of the forest seemed much more threatening. He pushed his way farther into the forest, trying to avoid getting whipped by the thin, pointed branches of the younger trees.

There was a rustle somewhere nearby and he froze, heart racing. There were wild animals in the woods, right? Big ones? And it wouldn't be the Legion, they lived in that big city of processed materials.

That would be the plan. Let the vicious forest animals finish the enemy.

There was rustling again, a little closer but a little quieter this time.

Closer but quieter?

This was one of the scant places in the forest with bushes that he'd come across. A few leaves parted and something small flew out.

Bugs. Wonderful.

It flew up towards his face and he raised his hand to swat at it.

In a blur of motion it grew into a young woman, floating in the air, whose foot connected momentarily with his jaw.

Shrinking Violet landed lightly on her feet in a crouch. She raised her ring to speaking height.

"Number seventeen. What're you on, Norg?"

Dawnstar stood as Cosmic Boy started to come over.

"Don't you know to wait for back-up?" he asked.

"We couldn't simply stand around, Cosmic Boy," she told him. "Besides; there is something you need to see."

She led him over to the edge of the cliff as Cham went to mingle. She pointed out across the plains.

"You see that bit of haze over there by the horizon?" she asked. He nodded.

"And that one, over by the big hill? And that one, by outcropping? And that one, and that one, and that one, and that one, down by the base of this cliff?"

"Yes-"

"Those are all villages. Peasant villages; where people live in mud-and-stone houses with straw roofs and fire pits outside their doors. The haze is the smoke from those fires. The wealthier ones, and I mean this only by comparison, have chimneys. The people who live in those houses have had their souls trampled on, Cosmic Boy. They are not bad people, just people with no hope. Perhaps we are here to fight Terror Firma and find Timber Wolf, but should we not try to help these people as well?"

Cos stood and stared broodingly at the patches of smoke that dotted the plains.

"We'll do our best."

Lyle leaned over the unconscious bodies of a pair of Terror Firma members.

"Haunted forest indeed," he murmured.

"Talking to yourself?" Violet asked over the ring.

"Ah, you do it to," he told her amiably. "Got a number?"

"Twenty. You?"

"These two make nineteen. Bouncy, what about you and the firebrand?"

"We've got you both beat. Inferno and I just captured our twenty-fourth."

Lyle did a bit of calculating. "Sixty-three, huh? I'm amazed how much they got turned around in these trees. You'd think they'd have stuck together, at least."

"I don't think any of these people were really team players," Violet said. "Is there any estimate on how many terrorists showed up?"

"Sixty-three sounds about right," Bouncy told her.

There was a dead, tense silence on the rings for a moment.

"You two didn't happen to catch Jeyra Etinn, did you?" he asked, too casually.

"No…"

"Yeah, I didn't think so."

Elysion had been sneaking up from the basement, searching for the door. He stepped silently off the last stair onto the top landing. A large room occupied this floor, empty but for some carpeting and a few chairs that seemed rather forgotten. There was one exit –or entrance- a large set of double doors recessed into the wall.

Elysion stood very still and felt a slight breeze blowing through those doors.

An outside exit.

"Now see, if you walk out that door than I'll follow you and you'll tear up the street outside and I'll have to try and attack you and I'll fail horribly- meanwhile, your girlfriend Jeyra out there is going to get captured by my friends and they'll come back here and find you with me and all sorts of unpleasantness is going to ensue."

Dream Girl emerged from a corner that had been hidden from his line of sight.

"So, if you stay in here everything might turn out better; wouldn't you think?"

Elysion glared at her. "You're going to try and stop me?"

She shrugged and ambled over to stand between him and the doors, hands on her hips.

"Yeah. I'm going to do a pretty good job of it, too."

He looked her up and down, noticing what looked to be the remains of some sort of evening gown and the impeccably cared-for appearance everywhere else. "You wish."

"I know," she told him, shifting into a martial-arts stance. "So, shall we get started?"


	16. Chapter 14b

**Chapter 14b**

"**Small Victories, Part 2"**

* * *

"If their own homeworld is like this, then why would the first place they attack be my planet?" Princess Projectra asked sourly. "There are parts where the houses and the villages are no different than these."

"Are they this despondent?" Dawnstar asked her.

The Princess sighed. "Every planet has its share of hopelessness, Dawnstar. It just so happens that there are some people who like to spread it around."

"People you cannot stop?" Karate Kid asked, concerned.

"Not yet I can't. But someday…"

Cham glanced over and decided to interrupt. "You see that big stone monstrosity over there?"

Tinya squinted. "That one that looks like a soft rain would make it fall over?"

"Yeah. Dawnstar picked up Brin's trail when we got to this side of the gate. He's in there."

He had to grab her to keep her from flying off. "No; no! Don't phase out! Cos doesn't want us being seen, remember? We've got to be stealthy about this!"

"There are trees down there," Condo said quietly.

Dawnstar looked down. "Those are perfect. Thank you, Chemical King."

* * *

Bouncy straightened and faced Jeyra Etinn, who had emerged from lurking in the trees.

"Having fun yet?" she asked nastily. "You haven't won, you know."

"Did I say anything about winning?" Bouncy asked. "No, I don't think I did."

He used his eyes to try and tell Inferno to edge in behind her.

"No, don't bother," Jeyra said, turning so that one side was to each of them. "Sneaking up on a psychic? You're _really_ going to try that?"

"You snuck up on us," Inferno told her resentfully.

"Oh, but that's my job in this little drama," she told her. "I sneak up on the two of you, and then you both become aghast at my bad manners, and then we fight, and then I-"

"-get hit."

Jeyra didn't turn quite in time to avoid Lyle's swing. She fell to the ground.

"You want to know why Imra never talks like Garth or Tinya do in a fight?" he asked, grabbing her. "She knows better than to let herself get distracted."

Bouncy smiled. "I was wondering how long it would take you two to get here."

"Don't stay up waiting for us," Violet muttered from somewhere nearby.

He looked up and saw her sitting in the tree above him, toddler-sized to fit on the branch.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he told her, looking at Jeyra.

"Inferno, you take Jeyra. We can leave the rest of Terror Firma here for the SciPols to pick up but we've got to keep an eye on this one. If she tries to run you have permission to singe her- lightly."

Jeyra chuckled to herself.

"What's so funny?" Inferno demanded, pulling her hands behind her back.

"Are you sure you can keep up with the Legionnaires, little girl?" she asked.

"What do you think I've been doing for the last couple of-"

"Ah, ah, ah…" Jeyra said. "Now, wait for it…"

* * *

"Where are we supposed to find Terror Firma, anyway?" Garth asked, grumbling as he pushed his way through some tangled grasses. "We've been over every inch of this stinking plain to see if there's a hidden doorway or something. Why would they even bother with that, anyway? It's not like they ever expected to be found."

Triplicate Girl looked out across the plains to the stone fortress, now just a speck on the horizon, in the distance.

"Well, there's no place else for them to be," she told him. "Dawnstar would have been able to tell if they were in that fortress, and they're not. So the only other place to be is here."

Nemesis Kid kicked at a rock. "Stupid place to be. Anybody could see them."

"I don't think they care," Colossal Boy said. He was trying to lie low with little success. Even when at regular height in comparison to the other Legionnaires he stood just as tall as most of the rocky outcrops.

"Well, still, what if there was a- a split within the ranks, or something? Or one of them got kicked out and wanted revenge?"

"They'd know where the base was anyway."

"I guess, but- aaaagggggggghhh!"

There was a long, loud clatter of sliding gravel. The Legionnaires nearby dashed over. Nemesis Kid was lying on his back at the bottom of a ditch, legs and arms askew. Colossal Boy floated down to help him up.

"That's some rockslide you caused," he said, looking up at the slope his friend had fallen down. "Look at that, you cleared the whole side of the ditch."

"Are you all right, Nemesis Kid?" Element Lad called down.

"Just scrapes!" he called back. "But they hurt like you wouldn't believe!"

"Then get back up here!" Garth yelled.

Nemesis Kid rolled his eyes and lifted off the ground, then looked back. "Hey, are you coming, Gim?"

Colossal Boy was still standing in the ditch, looking at the slope.

"What does that look like to you?" he asked, pointing at it.

"Huh?"

He grew and brushed his hand a few times across the side of ditch. Dirt fell away in giant clumps, and gravel skidded to the ground.

"Found something!" he boomed. "Looks like a blocked-up entrance to somewhere!"

Up on the plains, Cos looked that the ground below his feet. He stamped on it a few times.

"Jo," he said slowly. "Listen to this, will you?" He stamped again.

Jo knelt and bent down with his ear inches above the dirt, turning on his super-hearing.

"Well," he said after awhile. "This planet is hollow or there's a cave down there, 'cause I'm hearing echoes."

"Any idea how big it is?"

He shrugged. "No idea. Pretty big, though."

"Colossal Boy!" Cos called. "Can you open that door?"

"Yeah, just give me a minute to get a handhold-"

There was a screech as metal tore. "Got it!"

Cos raised his ring and motioned the other Legionnaires nearby into the ditch.

"This is Cosmic Boy calling all Legionnaires. We have found a concealed entrance."

* * *

Cham wandered through the hallways in his almost-human disguise, Karate Kid at his side, in a purloined poncho taken from an untended clothesline.

Princess Projectra was somewhere behind them, concealing herself and Phantom Girl from detection.

Up ahead, Chemical King was meandering from side to side of the corridor, attempting to look busy, or at least occupied. He was doing a passable job.

"We have seen no one for quite some time," Karate Kid told him quietly. "Would not Timber Wolf be guarded?"

Cham shrugged as slightly as he could. "How should I know?"

He glanced ahead. "Great, another dead-end. Come on, let's go back again."

Karate Kid grabbed his arm. "Wait."

Cham looked again. "Hey, what's Con doing?"

He walked towards the end of the hallway. The wall resolved itself into a door.

Condo had his ear against it. "I hear scratching noises," he said quietly.

Cham leaned over to listen, as well. There were little scratching noises coming from inside, like knives on metal.

Phantom Girl and Princess Projectra appeared out of thin air.

"Let me," Tinya said.

"Not yet," Jeckie told her. She raised her hands and placed them against the door, closing her eyes in concentration.

After a moment, she opened her eyes and removed her hands. "Now. Quickly."

* * *

Nura gave Elysion a roundhouse kick to the side of the head. The man staggered and fell to the ground. After a moment he pushed himself back up, supporting himself on hands and knees.

"Face it," she told him. "You're not getting any closer to the exit. Give up."

He chuckled weakly. "For a precog, you are remarkably unperceptive."

"Says who?" she asked archly.

His hands tightened against the floor.

"Me."

The ground shook and Nura stepped back to keep her balance. The walls trembled and, from far above, a rumbling began.

Elysion looked up triumphantly at her and stood. He raised his hands. Cracks ran up the wall and chunks fell out of the ceiling.

"Do you want to see what I can do to this building?" he asked, sneering.

Nura's expression changed.

"Why do you think I was put in charge of Terror Firma?" There was a screech as the doors twisted and pulled back to make an opening to the outside world. "I'm the only one whose powers work in these godsforsaken cities of yours."

The rumbling grew louder and he lowered his hands, dashing forward. Suddenly he found himself lunging towards the floor as Nura stepped aside. He felt hands on his back.

"Of course I know what you can do," she hissed in his ear. "Why do you think I sent the others away?"

Her grip tightened and she threw him out of the building. Elysion fumbled for his balance as Legion Headquarters finished its spectacular collapse, dust and rubble rolling down the sides of the building as the top few floors descended towards the ground, crushing everything below it.

Soon enough, Elysion found his balance. Straightening, he turned and looked behind him.

Dream Girl was nowhere to be seen.

Laughing quietly to himself, Elysion took a leisurely seat on a piece of wall.

* * *

"Are you sure I can't make just a _little_ bit of light?" Sun Boy asked Imra, walking next to him the darkness of the excavated tunnel. They had long before lost the fading light of the dying day outside in the twisting depths.

_:Absolutely. There are people somewhere up ahead, and we shouldn't lose any advantage surprise will give us.:_

"There's nothing to be scared of in the dark, Dirk," Shadow Lass said from somewhere nearby.

"Says you," he muttered.

"Aw, come on, don't worry about it." Jo sounded like he was somewhere near Shadow Lass. "There's enough people here who can still see to make sure nothing happens."

"Want a nightlight, Dirk?" Wildfire asked sarcastically.

"Shut up," Garth told him from somewhere in the back of the group.

_:Quiet, all of you:_ Imra ordered.

From somewhere, Dirk felt a hand brush his. "Really," Nemesis Kid told him quietly. "We'll be fine."

He smiled a bit, even though he knew his friend couldn't see it.

Shvaughn cleared her throat and Imra patched her into the Legionnaires' minds.

_:It's getting brighter.:_

Sure enough, the blackness of the tunnel was fading into an indistinct grey. It was just possible to make out Imra as she raised her hand to halt the group.

_:Listen…:_

* * *

Tinya phased carefully through the door and stopped.

"Brin!" she gasped, looking down.

"Get your leg out of my head?" he asked. He'd been sitting in front of the door, clawing at it.

She took another step forward and solidified. Brin stood and she swept him into a hug.

"I was so worried about you!" she said. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

He brushed her searching hands aside. "I'm fine. Really."

"And tell me why I should trust you?" Tinya asked severely, checking him over. "This coming from the man who calls a five-inch slash in his side a 'minor wound'."

"It is, for me," he said, pulling his face away from her fingers. "Seriously. Stop it!"

"I'm still not convinced," she told him, but stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. "But let's get you out of here. I'll make Trips look at you."

Tinya gave him a stern look. "And you will cooperate."

"Stop mothering me."

"Tinya?" someone called from outside the door.

"Who's that?" Brin asked.

"Cham and some other people." She kissed him again. "I'll be right back."

She leaned through the door. "I found him, he's in here, can we get him out?"

Karate Kid shifted his stance. "Please move back."

Tinya pulled out of the door and pulled Brin away from it.

The door vibrated slightly with the strike, then slowly crumpled into fragments.

"I never get tired of watching him do that," Cham confided, stepping through the door. He smiled brightly at Brin and tackled him.

"Get off."

"Never."

* * *

"Why do I hear roaring?" Garth asked.

Shvaughn slid by Imra, closely followed by Element Lad. They disappeared briefly around a corner, then backed out again quickly.

"There's a mob out there," Shvaughn told them. "Rioting, even."

"What are they doing?" he asked.

A voice floated into the tunnel.

"Is that Lemnos?" Tyroc asked after a few minutes.

"Yes," Cos said sourly. "He's good at giving speeches, isn't he?"

"Can't he just give some orders and get it over with?" Wildfire grumbled. "I'm tired of listening to this guy. What is he even talking about?"

"He's raising an army."

The Legionnaires looked at Imra.

"You're sure?" Garth asked.

She nodded.

"Foot soldiers," Shvaughn said. "With portals like the one we came through active and waiting for use."

There was silence for a moment.

"This is not what we were planning to do-" said Trips.

"-but when does any situation we enter go as planned?" Blok finished for her.

"Anybody have anything to say before we rush headlong into a horde of terrorist cannon-fodder bent on destruction and murder?" Jo asked.

"How appropriate your description," Nemesis Kid murmured.

"Don't let anyone get through those gates," Imra told them.

"Remember what you're fighting for," Cos said.

Garth pulled a face. "Try not to get yourself killed."

Shadow Lass adjusted her belt. "Off we go, then."

* * *

The rumble of a collapsing building reached all the way into the park.

"What was that?" Lyle asked.

"Ask your friend in the tower," Jeyra said nastily.

Bouncy looked at her suspiciously and called over his ring. "Nura? Nura, come in."

There was silence.

"_Nura?_"

Violet glared venomously at Jeyra. "Where is she?"

She jerked her head towards the forest canopy. "What do you see?"

They risked a glance.

"The city?" ventured Lyle.

"I'll try again- what _don't_ you see?"

Bouncy's eyebrows snapped together. "HQ is gone."

Violet turned on Jeyra. "You-!"

Jeyra smiled. "Say hello to Elysion for me, will you?"

* * *

"Ah, so you did make it out unharmed," Dawnstar said from her seat in a tree as the rescue team reached a small grove of trees near the fortress. "I thought you had had a difficult time. It is good to see you alive, Timber Wolf."

"Weirdly enough, we didn't," Tinya told her, flying up to the branch. "There was hardly anyone there."

"There should have been," Jeckie said. It sounded as if she was continuing an earlier point. "No one builds a fortress and then leaves it unstaffed."

Dawnstar looked off towards the cliffs.

"Listen."

"I hear fighting," Brin said after a moment.

Dawnstar nodded. "It started recently. I believe the Legion has found Terror Firma. We should go."

* * *

Garth had his back up against the wall of the great crater the soldiers had been using as a meeting area, guarding the portals with Wildfire on one side and Shvaughn on the other. The rest of the Legion had waded into the chaos that had ensued when the gathering had been interrupted.

"Stay back," he warned some advancing fighters. They looked battered and worn, in old patched clothes and scant armoring that looked to be cobbled together from discarded surplus SciPol riot gear. "I don't want to fry any of you. That armor doesn't look very protective."

They just kept coming. He raised his hands and the air crackled as he sent lightning crawling over their bodies. They dropped and the next group of soldiers came over them.

There was a boom from his right as Shvaughn fired her weapon at a knot of fighters who looked more determined than the others.

"Do I even _want_ to know why you thought it necessary to bring a shoulder cannon?" he called over the noise of battle.

"I got tired of feeling out-classed!" she yelled back, blasting another group.

"So why don't the rest of the SciPols do it like you?" Wildfire was holding off a whole flank of advancing soldiers by putting up a wall of his energy.

"They're not fighting with any of you!"

* * *

Saturn Girl and Shadow Lass stood back to back with Ultra Boy raging nearby.

"I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this," Imra told Shadow Lass. "Have you noticed how they don't react to anything you say?"

Shadow Lass kicked an attacker in the gut. "I had noticed."

"And I can't find Jeyra," she continued, fighting off her own assailant.

"You can't find the one lady who could make an issue for you?" Jo asked. The tide of battle had carried him to within conversation distance. "Why?"

"I don't think she's-"

She swept a soldier's legs out from under him. "-here! But the sooner we stop these people the sooner I can find her!"

* * *

Bouncing Boy was first on the scene, and was therefore the first to get attacked by a flying chunk of rock. He rolled away and got back to his feet.

"What did you do with Dream Girl?" he demanded.

"Oh, you want to search through all of that?" Elysion asked him, jerking a thumb at the massive pile of rubble that had once been Legion HQ. "Have fun. I don't think there'll be much left of the dreamer, though."

* * *

Farther back, in the woods, Inferno was chasing Jeyra. All the while she was cursing herself in her head.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! She let the prisoner get away.

A hand grabbed her from behind and she immediately flared up.

"Hey!" Lyle said indignantly, letting go and shaking his hands. "No singeing! What happened to Jeyra?"

"She mindblasted me and ran off," Inferno told him. "I've been following her, come on-"

"No point," he told her. "She'll be headed for Elysion. Its shorter if we go this way."

Inferno ran with him.

"Wait- where's Shrinking Violet?"

"Being prepared."

* * *

"Ready to plunge into uncertain doom?" Cham asked. The rescue team had arrived on the edge of the crater where the battle was being held.

"Let's go," Brin growled. "I see some less-than-pleasant jailers."

He dashed down the side of the crater.

"Hey, you're not going without me!" Tinya called after him, flying to catch up.

Jeckie looked out across the melee and raised her arms outward. The air above the crater twisted and re-formed into a migratory space dragon of the sort that passed annually through the Imsk-Braal system. There were screams from below.

"I take it we shall not be fighting together?" Karate Kid asked her. She nodded.

"Be careful, Val."

He flew down into battle.

"Chemical King, will you come with me?" Dawnstar asked. "We can free up this whole side of the crater if we can take out the machines powering those gates."

Con nodded and the two of them went out into the air over the battle.

Cham was still standing, looking down.

"Are you going or not?" Jeckie asked, still concentrating on her illusion.

"I'm going to help you," he said.

"Oh really?"

He jumped up into the air and didn't come down. She glanced up. A second space dragon glided over the battle.

"Ah, verisimilitude."

* * *

There was a great roar as a grey blur shot past Jo. It cannoned into the nearest foot soldier and resolved itself into a snarling, slashing Timber Wolf.

"Hey!" Jo called. "You're alive! How was imprisonment?"

"Boring," he grunted. "This is the most fun I've had all week."

Hands reached through the soldier Jo was fighting and grabbed the strap of the woman's helmet. Within seconds she was on the ground.

"Are we having fun yet?" Tinya asked.

Jo shot her a quick thumbs up.

* * *

"Jan!" Dawnstar called.

Element Lad looked up.

"To the portals!" she called.

"Go," a voice behind him said. "I will take care of this area."

He turned to look at Karate Kid.

"Go," he said again.

Jan ran past Shvaughn, who was readying another blast. Wildfire gave him a little salute as he hurried past to where he could see Condo fidgeting. Dawnstar landed next to him.

"You see here, and here, and here?" she asked, pointing. "Cable ports for power. And there, the cables go into the rock. Behind there are the processors and computers and energy units. I cannot get at them, but the two of you can."

Condo ran a hand over the nearest cable. "Plastics?"

Jan laid his hand next to his. "There's iron under there, and copper. A little silicon, as well."

"Silicon?" Con asked. "How did they make teleportation devices with silicon?"

Dawnstar pointed to the large main structure. "Patch-ups for old replacement parts for transmatter gates. These terrorists use nothing new."

Jan moved to feel the rock wall of the crater. "Where do the cables go, Dawnstar."

She closed her eyes. "Back, then to the left…"

* * *

Above the battle, flying with Jeckie's illusory dragon, Cham caught a thermal and soared higher. Down below he could see the soldier's side faltering. They were completely unprepared and horribly underequipped for fighting the Legion.

He snorted, a little puff of smoke emerging from his nostrils. Lemnos had to have known that his soldiers would eventually face the Legion. What had he expected to do when that happened? These people were even surrendering in some places as he watched!

There was a mighty rumble and he craned his long neck around just in time to see a section of the crater fall away, dust flying everywhere and born upward by a sudden draft of gas. With his sharper eyes he could see past the debris and to the exposed cables, which were busy disintegrating. There was a flash as the portals disappeared, and Lighting Lad and Wildfire dove into the fray. Shvaughn fell back to guard Jan, Condo, and Dawnstar.

Cham banked and turned. Now, there was one person who could make this situation fall apart even faster.

There.

He dove, front claws extended.

Lemnos saw him coming and wavered, not sure whether to run or not. That was enough time for Cham to catch him and rise again, just missing the crater wall. He re-formed his vocal cords and mouth into something suited for speech.

"Look up here, you horrible little underprepared invaders!" His voice was deeper and booming now because of his greater size. "Look who I have!"

* * *

Imra didn't have to look to see who Cham had captive. Next to her, Tasmia was disarming another little group of surrendering soldiers.

All around, other fighters were looking up and seeing their leader captive. It was taking little time for them to make the decision to surrender. Most of them were starting to feel, to her mind, just as disheartened as the villagers she had sensed before.

_:Jan, Condo!:_ she called. _:Are all the portals down?:_

_Yes,_ Jan replied. _I don't think it will be possible to repair this equipment, either. Chemical King has utterly destroyed most of it._

_:Good for him.:_ she said. _:Cham!:_

_Yeah?_

_:Fly back towards the plateau. The rest of us will meet you there.:_

_Got it._

She took a deep breath. _:Legionnaires! We've got Lemnos. Back to the plateau.:_

Overhead, the illusory dragon disappeared. All around, people disengaged from battle and lifted off into the sky.

Imra waited a moment, then joined them in flight.

* * *

Lyle and Inferno reached the edge of the park and ran towards where Bouncy was fighting Elysion. It was a fairly matched battle, despite what most people may have thought. There were enough piles of debris lying around that Bouncy was making good use of his momentum to continuously knock Elysion to the ground again and again.

As they hit Legion plaza Lyle faded into the air. He ran for Elysion, seeing his next attack. The terrorist was faking fatigue, and from the angle Bouncy was arriving at he couldn't see the massive chunk of former building that was hovering in the air.

Elysion stood just as Lyle got to the beginning of the debris. He launched himself off the top of the nearest pile and hit the ground just in front of the terrorist, sweeping his legs out from under him.

Elysion fell, losing his concentration and his hold on the rubble in surprise. He pushed himself back up and swept his arm out wide, trying to catch his invisible assailant.

Lyle ducked under his arm and caught him in the gut. Elysion lost his breath in a grunt and backed away, doubled over. Bouncy caught him from the side, bowling him over onto the ground once more.

Now he rose shakily; but managed to throw a medium-sized bit of building at Bouncy, who disappeared over a rubble pile.

Lyle rushed him.

Suddenly the inside of his head exploded into unseeing white light. He felt himself lose all control of his invisibility as he struggled to keep his balance. Again the light struck him, accompanied this time by pain. Lyle fell to the ground.

"You of all people should know better than to trust your eyes," he heard Jeyra say from somewhere nearby. "Just because you can't see someone doesn't mean they aren't there."

His head began to clear and he managed to look woozily over to where Jeyra was standing with Elysion.

"Hello there," she was telling him. "You didn't fall for any tall platinum blonde woman while I wasn't looking, did you?"

"Since when are you never watching?" he asked.

She laughed and looked over at Lyle. "Oh, getting back up, are you? Elysion, why don't you show him the folly of his ways while I go seek out that little yellow-haired brat who grabbed me?"

Elysion smiled nastily at Lyle and extended his hands.

Lyle felt like his atoms were trying to pull apart. He screamed and fell to his hands and knees.

"You feel that?" Elysion yelled. "That's the iron in your blood and the calcium in your bones and the carbon in your tissue coming to _me_. Too bad it's attached to the rest of you!"

He lowered his hands. "But I'm getting ahead of myself."

The pulling stopped and Lyle gasped in a huge breath of air.

"There's all sorts of fun little trace elements in humans," Elysion said, coming closer. "Sulfur, copper, zinc, potassium… with all the compounds they make it's almost endless. I hear you're a biochemist. I'm _sure_ you know about all that."

Lyle could see Elysion's feet from where he was, staring down at the ground.

"So, why don't you tell me where I should star-_eghk!" _

There were chocking sounds from above and Lyle kicked his leg out sideways to catch Elysion in the shin. He fell over Lyle and he pushed him off, flipping to sit on the ground.

Elysion gasped and scrabbled at the ground; then inhaled sharply and relaxed.

Shrinking Violet emerged from the base of his neck, growing in the air.

She leaned against the nearest tumble of debris, legs sagging.

"I've done that before," she said, voice rough. "I told myself I'd never do it again, and yet here I am."

Lyle smirked at her. "Hey, you're a Legionnaire. You should know better than to say _'never again!'_"

"Yeah, I should."

He closed his eyes for a moment, then stood and helped Violet straighten up.

"You think Bouncy's okay?" he asked. "Usually he'd be up by now."

"I'm sure he's fine," she said.

"_You_ won't be!"

Both of them looked over suddenly. Elysion had risen, and chunks of building material and gravel were already flying through the air.

Violet pushed Lyle to the ground just before the cloud struck her. She fell to the ground.

Elysion smiled with a mad gleam in his eyes.

"You _dare!_"

Duplicate Boy came out of nowhere, blue light fading behind him. He tackled Elysion and they both fell to the ground.

He grabbed Elysion's collar.

"_You. Are. Dead!_"

* * *

Cham was within sight of the cliffs and considering the fact that soon he would have to rise higher to clear the top when something massive hit him from behind.

He tumbled toward the ground, losing hold of Lemnos and his dragon shape. He was too stunned to remember his flight ring and hit the ground at speed.

His powers kicked in automatically to fix most of the damage, but he was unsteady on his feet and couldn't seem to focus his eyes properly.

But it was hard to miss his attacker. Lali Muldrow stood almost as tall as the cliff.

She bent down and placed her hand palm-up on the ground. Someone –Lemnos, he managed to see- jumped off.

He lost his balance and hit the ground again. When Cham finally managed to gather himself again he had been surrounded.

People he vaguely recognized- the blonde girl who threw fire, the giant alien, a woman who created winds, someone who turned to water- stood around him. He was conscious of someone else behind him, but he couldn't get up the strength to turn and look.

"So many plans foiled," Lemnos sighed, ambling over. His minions parted to let him through. "So many lost opportunities. This could have been over by now, you know."

He knelt by Cham's head and placed a hand between his ears. "Ah well. You've all come this far, I guess we'll have to oblige you."

Lemnos stood again and backed out of the circle. The Terror Firma members closed the circle again.

"Do what you want with him, I suppose. There won't be much opportunity for fun once we rid ourselves of the Legion."

* * *

Lyle and Violet watched for a moment, dumbstruck, as Elysion blew Ord off him. The former Workforce leader surged back to his feet and rushed the terrorist.

Elysion dodged, but Ord brushed him with his hand, a triumphant look on his face.

"You _promised,_" he hissed. "You weren't going to _touch her!_"

Elysion tried to fend him off but Ord grabbed him again.

"I told you what would happen if you broke that promise," he told Elysion, bringing his face closer. "I know you know. You're going to pay for that now."

He threw the terrorist back into a rubble pile and flexed his hands. The rubble shifted and collapsed onto him.

Elysion pushed his way out of the pile and pulled more debris towards Ord from behind. It hit him hard in the back, knocking Ord into him.

They both fell to the ground, powers forgotten as Ord tried to strangle Elysion and Elysion tried to keep his hands away.

There was a sharp crack as Ord slammed his opponent's head into the pavement. Lyle and Violet could see his face, contorted with rage and obsession.

He did it again.

Violet couldn't stand there. She pushed Lyle towards the way Bouncy had disappeared. "Go find him!" she said urgently; and ran towards Ord and Elysion.

She shoved Ord off Elysion and looked at down at him quickly. His head was badly banged up, and he was definitely unconscious. She turned back towards Ord.

"You can't _do_ that!" she told him severely. "When you've got someone down you make sure they stay on the ground so you can take them into custody, not so you can hit them _more!_"

He looked at her, sadly. "But he _hurt_ you."

"Yeah, so? I'm a _Legionnaire!_ I get hurt so _other people_ don't!"

Something seemed to occur to him. His face lit up in a way she didn't like.

"But he's down now," he said slowly to himself. "So you're safe, and I took him down, and everything's all right."

He grabbed her arm and Violet shoved him off. "I didn't give you permission to touch me."

"But I _saved_ you!" Ord insisted, reaching for her again.

"I didn't need saving!" she snapped. "Now back off!"

She pulled away.

It took but an instant for his expression to change from that dawning, demented happiness to rage.

"I saved you!" he roared in outrage, stepping forward again. "I told Elysion what I'd do to him if he _hurt_ you and I _kept_ my _word _and I kept him from _hurting_ you and you- you-!"

Violet punched him in the face.

* * *

Gim placed his giant hands on the rim of the crater and levered himself out, the last Legionnaire to leave the battle. He used the hole made by the demolition of the transporter technology as a foothold and swung his other foot up onto the plains.

He stood and straightened. He was halfway through his first step to the cliffs when something caught his eye; something the flying Legionnaires couldn't see yet. Their view was blocked by a tall outcropping not too far away from the edge of the cliff.

But Gim's head was higher than the altitude they were flying at, and he could see the small knot of people clustered at the foot of the cliffs.

Lali was there. Then one of the people in the group moved, and Gim saw a flash of orange. He focused in on the group and spotted Lemnos.

They had Cham.

"LET HIM BE!" Gim roared. The sound echoed across the plains and the ground shook as he took off running. "LALI!"

It took a mere dozen strides to reach his teammate's attackers. Lali had turned and stood slightly. Gim came at her, hands out, and grabbed her forearms, pushing her back into the cliff. Her head smacked against the top of the plateau and she pushed back.

He cursed the need to look down and take his eyes of Lali, but he couldn't crush Cham by stepping back. He ended up with one foot on each side of the group and he knew from experience that he was horribly off-balance. A good push in the right place and he'd be on the ground.

There was a yell from below him and Gim risked another glance down. Ultra Boy had shown up, dropping out of the sky to use his super speed. The other Legionnaires were closing rapidly.

Gim looked back up as Lali grabbed his arms, as well. He'd have to trust the other Legionnaires to save Cham and capture Terror Firma.

He stepped sideways and pulled Lali across the cliff face, trying to get her to let go. His one step was a little too much- they'd cleared the cliff and were out on the plains.

Lali got her feet under her and braced herself just as Gim did the same thing. For a heartbeat they were balanced against each other in a wrestler's hold until Lali pushed. Then they were struggling, taking big steps to keep from falling, careening across the plains.

Suddenly Gim heard screaming.

He looked down and saw his foot descending towards one of the little villages that dotted the plains. There were people running from the houses, panicked.

He quickly changed the descent of his foot to avoid the houses and the people, but it left him unbalanced. Lali shoved on his left side and his torso twisted. He fell to one side of the village with a ground-shaking crash.

Then Lali made a mistake. She followed him down to the ground, falling to one knee and pulling her fist back for a punch. Gim surged forward and caught her in the chest. She was pushed up as he stood; then toppled backwards, looking in shock at the ground.

There were more faint screams and Gim cursed himself in his head. He'd pushed her into another little village!

But she saw where she was headed and managed to bring her arms around behind her, saving the village from being crushed.

Gim stood still for a moment. She hadn't thought about it; he knew that much from years of watching his teammates react in crisis situations. She'd just seen the danger to the people below her and stopped herself.

So then what was she doing with a group like Terror Firma?

He was frozen with surprise for long enough for Lali to get back to her feet. He only snapped out of it when she threw a punch at him.

Gim didn't manage to block her swing and got hit on the side of the jaw. He staggered and saw himself headed towards another village, reeling with his own momentum.

Why did they have to fight where there were innocent civilians? They had the whole plain to use!

There was only one thing to do. He couldn't stop himself this time, so he started shrinking. Each foot he shrank his stride decreased, so that when he finally reached the village he was under ten feet tall. Finally he reached his smallest height and steadied himself, turning to look for Lali.

She stood over him, her hand already scant feet above his head. He dove sideways and hit the ground on his side, sliding a short distance. Her hand missed him, but she reached over just as he turned and flicked him on the side of the head.

His vision went black.

* * *

Jo looked up from his fight with the big alien to see Lali Muldrow striding back across the plains. She reached the group and dropped something.

He abandoned his fight to rush towards the falling body. Jo staggered under Gim's unconscious weight but managed to stay standing.

He knelt to place his friend on the ground just in time to hear Lemnos say "Now!"

Suddenly his muscles locked up. He couldn't move his hands or feet or mouth or even blink. Through some miracle of nature –or perhaps extreme practice on his attacker's part- his heart keeping going, and he could still breathe.

There were other Legionnaires frozen in a similar way in his field of vision. Presumably the rest of the Legion was caught as well.

"Now, here's a bind," Lemnos said cheerfully from somewhere behind him. "A wonderful little puzzle! I've got you here now, so what to do with you?"

There was the sound of a single delighted clap. "I know! Such a simple solution to our problems, as well!"

There was a silence. When Lemnos spoke next, his false cheerfulness had been replaced with a flat, dismissive tone.

"Kill them all."

* * *

Inferno had stayed back when the Legionnaires had gone to fight Elysion. She stalked around the edge of the debris, telling herself she was keeping watch for more enemies but really wondering what she'd gotten herself into. McCauley had paid her for doing this sort of thing, and she hadn't done it well, but here she was fighting with people she'd been opposing for the last two years.

So if they had been enemies that long, why were they suddenly working together? And why was she taking orders from them?

_:Why in-deed.:_ said a voice in her mind, as something hit her, hard, in the back of the head.

She fell to the ground and rolled, coming up with fire already shooting towards her assailant. Jeyra sidestepped and gave her another psychic blow to the head. Inferno let out an involuntary grunt and lost control of her fire, falling to the ground once more.

She was trying to push herself back up when Jeyra stepped on her back and pushed down, hard. Her head smacked against the pavement as her arms gave way. She tasted blood in her mouth and tried to blink away more blood, trickling down her face into her right eye.

:Don't bother trying to get up.: Jeyra said. :You're not leaving here until I say you are.:

She reached down and grabbed Inferno's arm. It was the work of a moment for the girl to heat up her skin enough to make the telepath scream in agony and let go. As she bent over in an involuntary attempt to shield herself from further searing heat Inferno pulled herself up and pointed at her hand at her.

"Burn."

Flames erupted in the air around her hand and raced towards Jeyra. The hem of her long split skirt caught fire, the dark red material curling into ashy black and falling away. The ends of her black hair were also going up in smoke.

Jeyra dropped to the ground and rolled away. She came up smoking but unhurt, hair and hem a few inches shorter- and very, very angry.

Inferno got another gut-wrenching attack on her mind from Jeyra. Again she fell, to her knees this time. Immediately, she flung more fire at Jeyra to buy herself time to recover.

But Jeyra was ready for her this time and had ducked behind some rubble to shield herself.

_:No more.:_ Inferno heard. _:Stay. Down.:_

This time the words were accompanied with a crushing weight that brought unconsciousness along with it.

* * *

"_What?"_ Lali shrieked.

Brin wished he could cover his ears, but he still couldn't move at all. This was just like the first time the Legion had encountered Terror Firma, but then it had just been him and Jo caught. Now it was everyone.

"But they can't _move!_" she continued.

"So?" Lemnos asked. "That's the idea. They can't move, they can't run, this will be easy. It removes the biggest obstacle to our plans."

"You can't just go and _kill_ people who aren't _fighting!_"

"And what does that matter?" he asked. "That's what we've been doing, Lali. Or hadn't you read the news reports before you had to flee here when the Legion discovered you?"

"But-"

"Oh, is it because now it's you being asked? Is it because now you can't _ignore _what we have to do to win our place in the galaxy back? To prove that the United Planets made a _mistake?_"

Lali's face was a study in shock and horror. "You don't have to _kill_ people to do that!"

Lemnos shook his head slowly. "Lali, Lali, Lali…"

"Shut up!" she screamed, and backhanded the terrorist who kept the Legion captive.

Brin could feel his invisible bonds loosen and lunged forward.

* * *

The battle was back in full swing when Blok noticed the big alien pounding on the cliffs. He made his way over.

"What exactly are you trying to do?" he asked. "The cliff is not your enemy."

The terrorist shot him a quick glance, then ignored him.

"This is truly a pointless exercise," Blok continued. "There is nothing to be gained-"

There was a sharp crack from above. Both Blok and the terrorist looked up in time to see a large chunk of stone tumble away from the cliff face, bounce off, and land a few feet behind them.

A moment later, a greater rumbling began. All around, Legionnaires and terrorists looked up and started to run.

The big alien smiled widely.

Blok looked at him. "Did you consider how you were going to avoid being crushed?"

The smile faded.

Dirk heard the last clatter of stone shifting and settling behind him but kept running. He hated himself for not turning around and trying, even trying, however futile that may have been, to dig out his friends.

But he could see Lemnos ahead, getting farther and farther away every second. Silently, he promised the buried Legionnaires he would return to later to try and rescue them.

The two of them ran for minutes, each trying to get the burst of speed that would mean success; but the extra energy they needed seemed to be non-existent.

Finally, after what seemed like far too long, Dirk saw Lemnos slowing. There was another one of those derelict villages up ahead, and the terrorist's mastermind seemed to be determined to reach it before he did anything else.

Lemnos reached the houses a minute before Dirk and ducked into a gap between two of them. Then Dirk hit the crude dirt road, really more of a worn path. He slowed and looked around. Lemnos was nowhere to be seen. The doors of the village were all tightly shut, the fire pits outside smoldering and the shutters of the few windows secured with anything to keep them closed.

"It's no use _running,_ Lemnos!" he called. "Even if that rockslide back there killed the rest of the Legion, it also took out your people! The only support you have on this planet are those soldiers, but they've already fought Legionnaires and I _don't_ think they'll do it again anytime soon!"

He walked forward.

"No matter how fast you go, how _far_ you go, eventually you'll get tired! Me, it doesn't _matter_ if I'm tired, I can just use my ring and fly after you until I get my breath and my strength back. And Saturn Girl told us about that little mental block you've got now, the one that means you can't use your powers? And I won't _ever_ forget you, Lemnos! Not with all the terror you've caused to innocent civilians and all the schemes you've hatched and everything you've destroyed. I'll just keep _chasing_ you until I _catch _you and I'll _drag_ you back to the UP for justice!"

There was the slightest suggestion of movement behind him. Looking back on it, Dirk would never be able to tell what warned him. But he spun around just in time to see Lemnos behind him, wielding a plank of wood for a club.

Sun Boy reached out his hand as he sidestepped Lemnos's swing and the plank went up in flames instantaneously. Lemnos screamed in pain and dropped it, leaning over and burying his scorched hands in his abdomen.

Dirk pulled back and hit him on the side of the head.

Lemnos collapsed into the dust, out cold.

There was silence for a moment before a nearby door slowly opened. A head poked out, cautiously; followed by a body.

All around, people emerged slowly from their houses. There was suppressed murmuring as they started to gather around, a good distance away from Lemnos and Dirk.

A little child, hair cut short and generally dirty, darted forward and touched Lemnos quickly, jumping back after the barest second.

Dirk smiled tiredly at the child. "It's okay. I got him."

The child looked at him with wide eyes and ran back to the group.

An adult came forward, saying something in a slightly worried voice.

Dirk just looked at him. Now that Lemnos was down, all his energy seemed to have drained away.

"I'm sorry," he told the villager. "I don't speak- whatever it is you do."

Another villager came over and said something to the first. He backed away and the rest of the group started to disperse slightly.

The second villager turned towards Dirk.

"I'm… sorry?" he said slowly. "I- I am only one who says in ruler… speak?"

"'sokay," Dirk told him. "You're doing a passable job. I know what you're saying, anyway."

"We all like to thank you for… this." The villager gestured to Lemnos, still out on the ground.

"No problem," Dirk assured him. "That's my job."

"There are- also- things we would like to… tell you," he said. "Many things."

"Well, sure, you can tell me, but-"

Dirk grunted as he swung Lemnos over his shoulder. "I've got friends I need to go help."

"I will walk with you."

* * *

Ord reached up to his face in shock, seemingly unable to process what had just happened. Gingerly he touched his broken, bloody nose; then brought his hand away to stare at it.

Then he looked at Violet again. There was a moment when neither of them moved.

Then Ord took a wild swing and Violet ducked underneath, ramming her shoulder into his gut and flinging him over her back.

He tumbled to the ground and grabbed her ankle. She used her flight ring to keep her balance and brought her other foot over and stomped on his arm. He yelled and let go.

Violet started to shrink down but Ord tackled her. Evidently Ord had duplicated her powers because now they were _both_ shrinking.

Violet struggled for a moment and got her arm free, then drove her elbow into Ord's jaw as she stomped hard on his foot. He lost his grip and stumbled back, rubbing his jaw. Her distraction and his inexperience had made him stop shrinking.

Violet kept going, and Ord seemed to realize she was getting away. He straightened up angrily and started to shrink again, quickly.

It was what she wanted him to do. Violet took a step towards him and shot back up towards her normal height. The speed of her ascent and his descent brought her fist up hard into his chin. She could feel his jaw snap shut.

Ord started to fall and Violet caught him over her arm. She raised her fist and hit him, lightly, in the back of the head. He went limp in her arms and her growth slowed.

They were both back to normal.

* * *

Far away, next to the cliff, the rockslide that buried the Legion moved. It started slowly at first, just a few pebbles bouncing down the side. Then a large piece grated against its neighbors and the whole pile heaved into the air, raining rock dust and small stones.

Colossal Boy stood, emerging like a great behemoth from under the debris piled on his back. Under him, the smaller rocks were being vaporized by various Legionnaires.

Finally Gim heaved the pile of rock off his back to one side. People clambered out of the pile, scrambling for footing as the smaller rocks slid underfoot.

Garth moaned and clutched his head in his hands. "I _hurt_. All _over_."

"You're alive," Cos snapped at him. "Stop complaining."

"I'll look at it once we get back to the ship," Trips told him.

Tinya stood and lifted her cape out away from her, sticking her hand through one of the enormous holes torn in it. She looked around at the others and sighed deeply. "There go the uniforms. _Again._"

Shvaughn pushed some rocks aside to clear her path. "Is this normal for you people?"

"Oh, we're_ way_ past normal by now," Tinya told her, still appraising the collective damage to everyone's clothes. "There's _no_ hope for us."

"Any terrorists getting up?" Nemesis Kid asked.

Jeckie looked at the blonde fire-thrower, out on the ground next to her. "Not a one."

There was an ominous sounding shifting of rock. The giant alien rose from the remains of the avalanche.

Blok materialized from the background of rock and stone, rose, and hit him firmly in the face. The big alien went down.

"_Now_ we are finished."

* * *

Dirk reached the scattered rock pile at the base of the cliff with relief.

"They got out," he said quietly to himself.

The villager looked at him quizzically.

"Oh, don't mind me," he told him. "My friends are okay, that's all."

The villager kept looking at him. "Where-"

Dirk readjusted Lemnos on his shoulder and pointed to the top of the cliff. "Up there."

The villager looked at the cliff with wide eyes. "There?"

"I'll take you."

Dirk set his new friend down on the top of the cliff. The villager was shaky and his eyes were wide when he saw the other Legionnaires.

"They're okay," Dirk said. "Hey, guys!"

The nearest Legionnaires turned. Cham whooped with joy when he saw Dirk's captive.

"We got 'em all!"

The rest of the Legionnaires turned at that and crowded around. Jo took Lemnos from him as Gim tried to lead him off.

Jeckie was the one who noticed the villager. "Who are you?"

"Ah-"

Dirk noticed what was going on and ducked out of his friends' congratulations.

"Where's Imra?" he asked.

Jeckie pointed to where Saturn Girl was sitting, cross-legged, on the ground over by the portal. "She's busy. Looking for Jeyra."

"Well, the rest of you then-"

He raised his voice.

"Hey! Guys! Come listen to what this man has to say!"

* * *

Lyle looked up from helping Bouncy as he heard police sirens enter the square where Legion HQ had once stood. The hovercars touched down, the smaller patrol cars surrounding a larger prison transport.

The Legionnaires looked at each other.

"Where are they?" One officer asked.

Lyle shrugged slightly at Bouncy and the former leader stepped forward.

"Elysion is just over that pile," he said, pointing. "Jeyra Etinn is around somewhere, and the rest of the terrorists are out in the park forest."

The officer made a hand motion and the other SciPols ran off.

Lyle cleared his throat. "There was-"

Violet emerged from the wreckage, hauling Ord.

"You'll want to take this one, too, Officer," she said.

The officer seemed doubtful but took Ord from her anyway. "Why?"

Violet sighed, tired. "Assault. Stalking. Breaking and entering. You have psychics on the force, they can take a look at him."

The officer looked at Ord, still unconscious, and took him off towards the prison transport.

"Legionnaires?"

The three of them turned. There was another SciPol there, who stood with her gun holstered and her helmet under one arm.

Lyle narrowed his eyes and tried to remember. "Gina- Georgia- Gigi? Gigi Cusimano?"

She nodded.

"Weren't you going to Mars?"

"I am," she said. "But NMPD called in reinforcements. Mars is closest." She gave them a worried look. "Have you heard from Gim? Or Shvaughn?"

Lyle shook his head. "Sorry. I'm sure they're fine, though."

"Okay." She still seemed worried, and looked off into the wreckage distractedly. "You said Jeyra Etinn was around?"

"Yeah," Bouncy sighed tiredly. "We'd better go find her, hadn't we?"

Gigi put her helmet back on and took out her gun, checking it quickly. The four of them walked out into the debris.

After a few moments, Gigi pointed. "There. On the ground."

The Legionnaires looked to where she was pointing. Jeyra sat cross-legged on the pavement, eyes closed and face composed.

"Ah," Bouncy said. "Imra's calling."

* * *

Jeyra had been just about to stand and finish Inferno when she felt a strong mental presence.

_:We weren't finished.:_ Saturn Girl told her. _:Back on Xolnar. You don't just walk out on a duel.:_

_:So that's what you care about.: _Jeyra said mockingly. _:Etiquette.:_

_:NO. I care about the people you've hurt, and the price you need to pay for that. But for now, we need to finish.:_

Jeyra sighed theatrically. _:Oh, all right. Now, where were we? You won round one, I won round two-:_

_:You were going to drop your shields.:_

Jeyra wandered over to a clear patch of ground and sat, relaxing.

_:Comfortable over there? In a safe place?:_

_:Just drop your shields.:_ Imra snapped.

_:Fine. One, two, three, go.:_

Both the telepaths dropped their mental shields at the same time. Round three of a psychic duel was the one where skill counted the most, less than strength or control. The object was to shock the other person into leaving themselves unguarded enough that you could knock them out with a powerful blow.

Both Imra and Jeyra had skill.

Jeyra started, pulling up the feelings she had when she was in a victim's mind, searching for a way to hurt. She shoved the pain and horror her toys felt before they died at Imra.

Imra countered with images from the recent battle. Brin's fury at imprisonment, and his attacks on the soldiers. Ultra Boy and Shadow Lass's vicious joy at battle; the fear and terror of the soldiers as they caught sight of Jeckie's illusory dragon.

Then Jeyra attacked again, throwing up her memory of the prisoner murder in New Metropolis that had gotten her caught, in graphic detail.

Imra watched impassively; and then dropped her images of Lemnos's defeat and Terror Firma's capture into Jeyra's mind.

That rattled the terrorist a bit, but not enough for Imra to make a move.

Jeyra dug further into the past, and wrapped Imra up in the thoughts and feelings of the people of Orando's capital, facing the destruction of their city and the absence of any help whatsoever.

Imra felt the malicious satisfaction behind that memory. She probed a little further and found a sentiment: Jeyra felt this was the best work she'd ever been involved in. It was huge and pleasingly destructive.

_:So you like big and decimating, do you?: Imra snarled, and went back to her second year in the Legion._

Suddenly Jeyra was confronted with the strongest psychic construction she'd ever felt before.

Then the emotions hit. There were no words to adequately describe the depth of terror and horror and panic there, nor for the deep hopelessness that saturated it all.

She felt hundreds of deaths; violent, nasty, horrible ones.

In her head, Jeyra screamed.

_:This is what you like, isn't it? That isn't even the worst of it, or the most of it. That was Trom, you tyrant. But you wouldn't know about it, now would you? You don't know the first thing about anyone in this galaxy, yet you seek to destroy them all.:_

It was almost too easy now. Imra reached into Jeyra's mind and rummaged around for a moment, throwing up a few random, confusing images.

_:I win this round, Jeyra. And when you wake up, you won't be able to reach beyond your cell.:_

She grabbed Jeyra's mind and twisted.

_:Now, sleep well- for all the good that will do you.:_

Jeyra flopped to the ground, unconscious.

Terror Firma was finished.

* * *

Gigi walked off with Jeyra, giving the Legionnaires a quick goodbye wave.

_:What happened here?: _Imra asked them. _:I got little bits and pieces of things, from Jeyra…:_

_HQ's been destroyed. Again._

_:Elysion, right?:_

_Yeah,_ Bouncy told her. _And- Nura-_

_:So that's where she went.:_

_She was in there._

They felt Imra shift her attention from them to the main pile of wreckage. There was a faint feeling of concern and concentration. The patrol cars took off, the prison transport lifting off a moment later. It was mostly silent for a long while, the air filled with only the distant background noise of a city starting up again.

Then there was a flash of surprise and Imra came back to them.

_:Nura's still alive under there!:_ she told them. _:But she needs to be dug out. Soon. She needs to get to a hospital.:_

Bouncy sighed. _We'll get her, don't worry._

Imra pulled herself back to the distant planet she was on and Bouncy turned to Lyle and Violet.

"Come on guys," he said, rubbing his hands together. "We're not done yet."


	17. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"**Bittersweet Endings"**

* * *

TERROR FIRMA DEFEATED; LEGION RECOVERS  
_by Mirella Tao_

Terror Firma was defeated yesterday by the Legion of Superheroes in two separate battles, one on Terror Firma's base world and one in the midst of New Metropolis. The majority of the Legion was in the battle on the unnamed base world of the organization that has been terrorizing the galaxy for two years now. Four Legionnaires –Bouncing Boy, Shrinking Violet, Invisible Kid, and Dream Girl- were present for the fight in New Metropolis.

The Legionnaires on Terror Firma's homeworld managed to subdue and capture the terrorists there and bring them back to the United Planets for trial; including the mastermind of the entire operation, a man known as Praetor Lemnos. Unexpectedly, they also brought back a small delegation of people from the planet, who are currently in discussion with United Planets officials. The only substantiated information about their situation is that they faced oppression under these terrorists. The purpose of the current meeting is unknown.

The Legionnaires fighting in New Metropolis were largely outnumbered by the invading forces, but prevailed in any case. They managed to subdue every terrorist attacking the city and capture Praetor Lemnos's right-hand man, Elysion, responsible for leading the attacks on UP space, and Jeyra Etinn, the infamous member of Terror Firma who was responsible for the murder of a captured terrorist of the same organization in the cells of the New Metropolis Science Police Department Headquarters.

Another terrorist, Lali Muldrow, so far the only other United Planets Operative recruited from within the population, may receive a lighter sentence in comparison to the other terrorists in light of actions against Terror Firma during the battle on the homeworld and complete cooperation with the Science Police. Lali Muldrow is a legal resident of Earth, and shares the hometown of Big City with Legionnaire Colossal Boy.

The conclusion of a closely related story, the leader of the short-lived alternative Legion known simply as the Workforce, Ord Quelu (also Duplicate Boy), was arrested at the same time as Jeyra Etinn and Elysion in New Metropolis. Details have been non-forthcoming, but the known counts for arrest are breaking and entering, stalking, and assault with deadly intent.

_Pre-print transcript of Mirella Tao's follow-up article_

In a surprise ruling by the United Planets Senate Court, the majority of the members of the terrorist group Terror Firma were sentenced not to jail time but to heavily-guarded community service; working to rebuild and terraform the planet of Krypton in conjunction with the Valorite missionaries, Coluan scientists, assorted Daxamites and dedicated UP volunteers. No one seems to know or seems to be willing to say who first suggested the alternate punishment, but the majority of the people polled seem to agree that the punishment is fitting.

* * *

"Got anything?" Bouncy asked.

Imra shook her head regretfully. "Nothing. That could just mean that my range doesn't extend that far, or there's psi-shielding."

"I just wish Inferno hadn't run off like that after the battle," he said. "I don't think she had anywhere to go."

Imra sighed and looked off into the distance. _:Dawnstar, have you found anything?:_

_She got on a ship,_ Dawnstar replied, from out in the city. _I don't know where it went, but I can ask…_

_:Would you mind searching? We just got back from a battle, and you spent time before that tracking that terrorist-:_

_I do not mind, Saturn Girl. I do not like the idea of leaving a child out in the galaxy, even if it seems she has survived for this long._

* * *

"I know you're there, Thom," Nura said, not looking up from her bed in the hospital.

"I couldn't just leave you here with no company," he replied, coming to sit in the chair by her bed. "I brought you flowers."

She smiled at him and moved her bandaged hand to cover his. "I know. Thank you."

Thom leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I miss having you around all the time."

Nura chuckled. "Oh, compliments. I've been so deprived."

There was something in her tone. Thom examined her face carefully.

"Have you been having bad dreams?" he asked quietly.

She stared at the ceiling, biting her lip.

"You know," he chided her gently. "If you break the skin you'll start bleeding. The doctors may skin me."

Nura smiled at him but it faded quickly.

"Thom?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how after each big crisis we usually a have quiet year or two?"

He nodded.

"And you remember how after Imperiex was defeated everything was sorted out for a month or so and then it all fell apart so it's really like we've been constantly fighting for three years instead of two?"

"We're not going to have any time to rest, are we?" Thom asked, resigned.

"Not a moment," Nura whispered. "It's already started."

* * *

The fire-wielding terrorist Kynda looked up as the door to her dim, windowless cell slid open and quickly scrambled backwards on her cot until her back hit the wall.

Shadow Lass, Invisible Kid, and Shrinking Violet stood there, all three out of uniform. Shadow Lass reached over and grabbed her collar, wrenching her to her feet. Kynda wished that the fireproof gauntlets she was forced to wear weren't so firmly secured. In her experience, there was only one reason enemies came into other people's jail cells.

"Now," Shadow Lass said. "We only got in here because of some… connections we've got. We're using valuable favors here, so you _are _going to tell us what we want to know."

Kynda's teeth rattled as the Legionnaire shook her slightly.

"Now, you remember awhile back, a few months? Lemnos went to Colu. He told our friend Violet here that he'd killed a friend of ours. Did you?"

"I-!"

Invisible Kid stepped forward. "He'd've been hard to miss. Green, blonde, kinda short, sometimes he's really annoying. Your friends ever see him?"

"I never saw him! Never, I swear!"

She tried to shake her head but Shadow Lass's grip tightened and Kynda froze.

"We want to know," Violet snarled. "Definitively. When we were on Colu Lemnos gave me a packet of hair. We couldn't match it to anything but the way our friend is that doesn't really matter. Lemnos told me your team killed him. Now, you tell me where he is or you tell me whose hair I have!"

Kynda swallowed visibly and hesitantly raised a hand to her head.

"I-I cut my hair awhile back. Lemnos took some and I wondered what he wanted it for but I didn't ask why because he's the boss and you don't do that."

Three sets of eyes glared at her. Kynda glanced over at Violet. "You- you wouldn't happen to have any of this hair on you, would you?"

Violet scowled and reached into a pocket somewhere. She pulled out a packet of paper, unfolded it, and extracted a lock of hair. She stepped forward towards Kynda and held the hair up for comparison.

"Looks the same to me," Invisible Kid said.

Shadow Lass narrowed her eyes in a way that made Kynda very nervous. The Legionnaire dropped her, and she fumbled for her footing.

There was a _shing_ as Shadow Lass drew a sharp, wicked-looking knife from the back of her belt.

Kynda went cold all over.

Shadow Lass grabbed her hair and cut some off with one swift stroke. Kynda fell to the floor.

"That enough?"

Violet looked at it and nodded, carefully placing the hair back in the packet. The door opened and the two women left.

Invisible Kid followed them, but paused just inside the door and looked back at the prisoner, who was still collapsed on the floor.

"Pretty soon you won't be here in this nice, safe, hard-to-get-into cell. Soon you'll be on Krypton, and they love us there."

He started to fade into thin air.

"I'll be back if this hair doesn't match-"

He was completely gone, now. "-And you'll never see me coming."

The cell door closed, ominously silent.

* * *

Tinya collapsed heavily on the couch, putting an arm around each of the men next to her.

"What was this thing made of, anyway? Inertron?"

Jo, to her left, snorted. "How would you know? _You_ weren't helping at all."

She pouted playfully at him. "Oh, come now. I was helping. Just not you two."

She ruffled their hair and Brin pulled at the collar of his civilian clothes uncomfortably.

"It feels weird being on-duty but out of uniform."

"What, you want to wear rags?" Tinya wrinkled her nose. "Not while _I'm _around."

Something seemed to occur to her and she gave them a sly look. "Though, with _you_ two I might make an exception."

Jo winked at her and she elbowed him. Brin just fidgeted. Tinya gave him a light kiss on the check. "I'm _teasing_."

Brin sighed and looked around at the room. "It's too big."

"Hey," Jo said. "The old man's being nice and giving us space until we get a place of our own again. Just 'cause the only place in the city he could spare was a an old starship factory doesn't mean we should complain."

Brin shrugged, still looking at the room. "It would be nice to have walls. I'm just saying."

The new Legion Headquarters –_temporary_ headquarters, they'd been assured- was really a gutted Brande Starships factory and attached storage hangar that had been scheduled for demolition before the old Legion HQ had been destroyed. The building was two-and-a-half stories high; the main room open all the way to the top with no walls and scant furnishings.

"Mr. Brande got us a stove and an oven and plates and stuff; not to mention the tables and the beds for the rooms upstairs and things," Tinya retorted. "And this couch which you two so _helpfully_ brought in."

Jo muttered something and she moved to smack his arm. "Oh, be quiet."

Brin's ears twitched. "Someone's knocking."

Tinya jumped up and ran for the front door, yards away. The two of them still on the couch could just barely make out a startled deliveryman, and a floating delivery sled behind him.

"Hey!" she called. "Get over here, guys! The new uniforms are here!"


	18. Appendix

**Appendix**

_This is for everyone who's ever read a fanfiction and wondered what was cannon._

**List of Cannon Event, Objects, and People**

CHAPTER 1: WORKFORCE

The Workforce was an alternative to the Legion sponsored by Brande's rival Leland McCauley in one version and led by Mekt Ranzz in another. However, only Inferno was an actual Workforce member (under McCauley). The other people were from different, supporting groups.

Saturn Girl has had multiple runs as Legion Leader; Dream Girl also had a term as Legion Leader.

Shvaughn Erin was the Legion's Science Police Liaison in the Classic Legion.

Atmos manipulated Dream Girl into dating him in the Classic Legion.

CHAPTER 2: TERROR FIRMA

Terror Firma is an actually terrorist organization and actually destroyed all of Orando. All of the members mentioned are from the organization except for Lali Muldrow.

King Vovx and Prince Wilhelm are actually Jeckie's family.

CHAPTER 3: PERCEPTION

_Consisted entirely of extrapolation on the previous chapter and contained no cannon information._

CHAPTER 4: MIRACLE MACHINE

The Miracle Machine was part of the Classic Legion, and Matter-Eater Lad really did eat it.

"Trust me, I'm in charge," is a variation on the fan-famous Matter-Eater Lad quote "Trust me, I'm a Senator."

CHAPTER 5: LIBERATION

The Imskian Liberation Army really existed in the Classic Legion, and kidnapped Shrinking Violet, replaced her with an imposter, and no one noticed. Meanwhile, Violet was stuck in a sensory-deprivation tank.

Valorism was a seemingly common religion in the Reboot comics, but Cos was cited as being a Disciple of the Last Son, aka as Superman. Given the context of the show, that seemed pretty weird.

Braal and Imsk had at least one cannon war that pitted Shrinking Violet and Cosmic Boy against each other in opposing armies. Cosmic Boy lost his powers and Shrinking Violet lost an eye, which was later replaced.

CHAPTER 6: COMPUTO

Talok is a warrior society and Shadow Lass has been a fierce fighter for many decades.

COMPUTO was known to periodically go crazy, usually because of something Brainy did, in the Classic Legion. In that same period, it was COMPUTO who killed Triplicate Girl's third body, making her Duplicate Damsel.

Chemical King did internalize a reaction used for energy once, in the Classic Legion. It killed him.

CHAPTER 7: MICROSCOPIC FLAWS

Yera is the traditional wife of Colossal Boy, and also an actress. She was hired by the Imskian Liberation Army to impersonate Shrinking Violet after they kidnapped her, saying Violet wanted to take a vacation without anyone noticing. It was in Shrinking Violet's form that Colossal Boy fell in love with her.

Lali Muldrow is an altered cannon character, really the male character Lalo Muldroon, the Imskian who kidnapped Violet. He had nothing to do with Terror Firma. An unnamed girl in the Threeboot shared Colossal Boy's powers in the Threeboot version of the Workforce, led by Mekt Ranzz.

Big City was the hometown of Colossal Boy in the Threeboot comics.

CHAPTER 8: POWER

Cosmic Boy has traditionally been from a poor mining family and played Magnoball.

The groups that the Workforce breaks up into are actual supporting groups for the Legion.

CHATPER 9: ESPIONAGE (REVENGE OF THE SUPPORTING CAST)

The entire situation with Jeyra and the murder is Threeboot cannon, only Chameleon Boy was the only Legionnaire on the case, and he was there unofficially.

Lyle's father didn't like the Legion in the Threeboot.

Gigi Cusimano is an actually SciPol officer who knows Colossal Boy.

Devlin O'Ryan and Mirella Tao are cannon reporters.

Jaxon Rugarth, Rond Vidar, Dr. Chaseer and Harmonia Li are cannon scientists at the Time Institute.

Richard Kent Shakespeare was a doctor who cared for superpowered children on a medical planet.

Xao Ji was a Reboot Legionnaire, but a magician, not a Kryptonian.

Cham disguised himself as a Junior SciPol officer in the Threeboot.

Dr. Gym'll is traditionally the Legion's general physician.

Laurel became a nun in the Reboot after a run with the Legion.

Tinya had a cousin Enya in the comics through a strangely convoluted storyline that didn't end the way the writers had originally planned. In the Reboot, she wore a gold pin with a red stone as a cape fastener.

Duplicate Boy was Shrinking Violet's boyfriend at one point.

An Ryd was murdered in the comics and Ultra Boy was falsely accused.

CHAPTER 10: MINDSET

Dori Aandraison is a Sub in the current run of the Legion. Her powers over the Lantern Corps power makes her have mood swings.

CHAPTER 11: AMNESIA

Lemnos destroyed the minds of every single Coluan on the planet in the Threeboot, leaving them at about the mental level of stereotypical Neanderthals.

Vrax Gozzl was part of Mekt Ranzz's Workforce. He was apparently not a pleasant person.

Metaire is the capital of Colu and the Library of Metaire is cannon.

CHAPTER 12: TITAN

Timber Wolf getting kidnapped by Terror Firma happened in the Threeboot, as did the Legion capturing Elysion.

Jancel is Imra's sister.

Night Girl is Cos's cannon girlfriend.

Mentalla is a cannon character, and controlled Lighting Lad for her Legion tryout, which she didn't pass.

Professor Vndaar and Dr. Aven were Imra's teachers in the comics.

CHAPTER 13: SOVERIEGNTY

The Threeboot Legion had jail cells in their headquarters because the building was a renovated jail.

Enya mysteriously disappeared as part of her backstory.

CHAPTER 14: SMALL VICTORIES

The Legion did capture Terror Firma in the end, but Sun Boy ran off with them to try and lead the team to a better future while Brainy held a comatose Lemnos in his lab in an attempt to resurrect the dead Dream Girl, who was living in his head, who had been killed by Elysion collapsing Legion Tower. It was a weird storyline.

Nullport is cannon.

EPILOUGE: BITTERSWEET ENDINGS

Inertron is a nearly-unbreakable substance in the Legionverse, that even Daxamites and Kryptonians have a hard time getting through.

Ultra Boy is the traditional husband/boyfriend of Phantom Girl.


End file.
